In Days Like This
by BlindRider
Summary: (Whoniverse AU) Hiccup is truly someone wise and patient beyond his years. But what would happen when the boundaries of said patience had been crossed?
1. In Days Like This

**Hey peeps! I'm very new in terms of writing fics on HTTYD, but I've been getting on some RTTE and I'm seriously hooked! I decided to try it out with this story first but bear with me, I haven't written anything in so looooong xD**

 **Anyways, I plan to have this mini fic to have like 3 to 4 chapters, but I might make it longer cause I am weird like that :P**

 **ENJOY!**

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In days like this….

He really wished that everything would just leave him alone.

To say that Hiccup's had a bad day is quite the understatement.

His day has been so horrible he thinks Loki has a personal grudge on him.

It started off with Snotlout forgetting to gather the fishes for breakfast, forcing himself to go out and gather some, even when it wasn't his turn.

Then he returned to the cooking station only to realize that the twins have wrecked the area due to their "experiments" with their gas and fire breathing dragon, forcing him to clean it up first with Fishlegs "mildly" helping, although all he did was avoiding splinters coming out of the wooden parts of the table, which furthermore delayed their breakfast.

He then had to take the minimal amount of fish out of the many he gathered, due to Snotlout and the twins already gulping most of them when he finished cooking.

That was just the morning, when he thought it couldn't get any worse, Toothless tailfin had somehow broke and needed meticulous repair, which grounded them until noon.

Then came the evening times, oh how much he wished that part didn't happen despite everything that has already happened to him that day.

It was supposed to be a simple flying-by bombing minor dragon hunter ships that were getting a bit too close to islands of dragon. Nothing out of the ordinary day to day encounter with those guys.

Except, it wasn't an ordinary day. For the hunters it might've been, but for the riders? That's a completely different story.

"Just drop the bomb on the barrels we've cluttered around!" He shouted out to his cousin, who only gave him grumbles in annoyance in response. Dropping the bomb is usually the easier task out of the others job, especially dropping one on such a big target. Hiccup had to zip close through all the ships to induce panic and commotion, Fishlegs had to take out the archers having the only dragon impervious to dragon root, Heather has to practically keep everyone's back on the watch.

Snotlout just had to drop the bomb. _Literally_.

The twins weren't much of a help either, all they did was bicker with each other with their job being lightning up the barrels that Hiccup and Fishlegs had pull together as a drop point to blow the ship up, simple stuff.

Usually it would've been done and dusted within the next ten to fifteen minutes.

But no.

Snotlout missed the drop point.

The twins ended up firing in panic, blowing their selves up in the process.

The bomb was then dropped and caught fire midair, resulting in on-flight explosion.

Resulting, in the team scattered by the bomb's shockwave, and the last hunter ship to escape brutal explosion, and to gain passage to dragon territory.

Now that just sucked. Bad day? Call it horrible at this point.

That wasn't even the end of it.

Sure he didn't expect his cousin to apologize, and like Hel would he expect the twins to make an actual apology.

But he didn't expect them to lash out at him like that.

"Guys what happened?" Hiccup asked, flustered due to the aftermath of the battle.

Snotlout simply crossed his arms "Obviously I didn't get a good enough clearing to drop off the bomb correctly"

Hiccup didn't have the audacity to jump on what he just heard "Excuse _me_?"

His cousin gave a sneering look while blurting "I said, I didn't get a good enough _clearing_ for me to drop the bomb"

Fishlegs then protested "But we cleared any remaining archers, weaponry, basically anything to could jeopardize the drop!"

All Snotlout replied was "Whatever fish face, it still wasn't good enough for me to drop the bomb"

Hiccup can only sigh and shake his head, before realizing the futile attempt to get some point across to the Jorgenson. Instead, he turned to the twins, who were busy checking out their "explosive" burns.

"How about you two? What happened to gassing and firing the barrels?"

The twins looked at each other as if looking for a reason, to which they say "Too many barrels in different ships, we didn't which barrels we should fire on" said Ruff, meanwhile Tuff added "Although on second thought, we should've just fired all of them cause why not?"

At this point Hiccup quite bewildered "What do you mean which barrels on which ship!? Me and Fishlegs gathered every barrels available on one, singular, ship! There's no other ship with barrels on them!"

The twins only shrugged, Ruff replied with a casual tone "Maybe next time you shouldn't be leading such a mission that just gets all of us confused"

Now Hiccup was starting to boil, he's had a bad enough day due to these same people, why should he be taking more dump from them.

He decided to pull himself together for a little longer. But that action hasn't gone unnoticed by Heather and Fishlegs, who were staring at each other, worrying what Hiccup might resort to.

He clears his throat "We've done this routine multiple times, how is this one any different than the other?"

Ruff spoke up once again "Maybe because you're only barking orders at us this time around?"

Snotlout perked up "Yeah Hiccup. How about next time you actually helped instead of just shouting stupid commands at us!"

Oooh Hiccup was now seething, this forced Heather to take a step forward in his defense "Well, have you tried leading missions properly before!? It's no easy task and he has to constantly blow ship holes everywhere and also be YOUR wingman because Astrid isn't here!"

Aah yes. That's one more contributing factor to his bad day. One that he would judge to be a bit…. well who is he kidding, her absence really didn't mix well with having a high spirit that day. That girlfriend of his had to go back to Berk due to a union her family was a part of. His problem was only for how long she had to be away.

 _A few days ago…._

" _Sure you won't be long?" he asked once again._

 _She looked at him with teasing eyes "Miss me already? Haven't even got off the island you know?" she chuckled straight after._

 _He can only smile "Well… being away from you for a day is long enough, not sure how I would cope with four"_

 _She smiled back and gave a small shove on his shoulder "You dork" she said and gave him a soft hug, to which he hugged back. Tucking her head under his chin while softly stroking her blonde hair that's shining gracefully under the evening sun._

 _He was feeling the moment until she said_

" _I love it even more now" while still hugging him._

 _He was confused for a second, looking towards the sun "What, the evening sun?"_

 _She then chuckles and looks up at him "Your sensitive side, it really is a cheesy side of you"_

 _He smiles and leans his forehead to hers "Be careful, I'll be waiting right here" then presses a light kiss on her forehead._

 _She reluctantly let go of the hug and trudged over to her faithful Nadder, she then saddled up and soon after that, was ready to go._

 _She gave him a look that says "I'll be back as soon as possible" but all she said was "In four days time?"_

 _He looked up with a smile and a look of assurance "Four days time milady"_

 _She smiles and gave a final wave, and in just a flap, she was already off to the horizon. Leaving her boy with only a dot to stare at before retreating to his hut._

He smiles a bit before harshly being brought back to reality. With Snotlout's voice raising up to defend himself from Heather's rather sharp statement "Well forgive me, I was never really interested in shouting bossy commands to everyone"

Hiccup can only sigh, wondering how today would've turned out if he had her with him. _That was three days ago, she should be back here by tomorrow. I just have to weather this situation and things can go peachy again right?_ Or so he thought…

He was about to interject until Snotlout began saying "Where is Astrid anyways!? How come she gets days off to Berk while we have to singe our butts here? Just keeps on bringing problems!"

Now Hiccup never cared about what his old bullies had called him, but to call Astrid as something as close to being problematic, is enough to bring him on edge.

"She has family matters to attend to Snot, a union in fact. Now lay of the steam a bit" he said almost with a bit of venom, which was unnoticed by Snotlout.

"Oh of course you'd be on her side mister lovey dovey being with her every day! Like, I don't even know what she sees in you that I can't do better!"

Hiccup was an inch away from boiling point now, he was visibly seething even "And what are you implying by _that_?"

Snotlout looked sort of proud, probably because no one has managed to bring him as on edge as he is right now "Duuuuh, you don't deserve her! And for all I'm sure, I can even lead the riders ten times better than what you're doing now"

 _That_. Was the breaking point. He was pissed beyond doubt. But if he was more honest to himself, the latter didn't piss him off as much as the first part of that sentence did.

He stood there, shaking with anger. His fists are curled and he figured that any moment now, he can knock Snotlout out on the Edge for the second time of their period in being there.

Fishlegs and Heather didn't know what to anticipate. All they can see is the fiery red aura that's burning in his eyes which can lead to all sorts of disaster. Snotlout was standing there in the ready to receive the punch predicted would land straight on his face. That way he could use the twins to use their "words of wisdom" and ensure Hiccup a moral defeat in being a leader. The twins on the other hand, waited in anticipation. To finally see their righteous leader actually do the dirty deeds.

Time seems to tick by forever, even when it was probably only for mere seconds. Snotlout closed his eyes with a smug smirk knowing that he has achieved what he thought was victory. The twins were getting riled up, Heather and Fishlegs can only try and prevent the worse.

They then heard a loud huff, Snotlout awaited the punch, the twins have their eyes almost popping out of their socket, meanwhile Heather and Fishlegs can only close their eyes.

….

Silence….

That's all that surrounds them.

Heather and Fishlegs slowly open their eyes not knowing what to expect, Snotlout immediately cracked open with confusion and the twins had their mouth dropped open in dissatisfaction.

There Hiccup was, leaning towards the Clubhouse table while pinching the bridge of his nose, seemingly infuriated while also having the edge taken off of him. Heather decided to close in and slowly calls out "Hi-Hiccup? Are you-"

She was interrupted with the brunette raising his hand to have her stop talking. He then turned to face the group and to be honest they were surprised and shocked to see his state.

Hiccup who looked blaring in anger just a few seconds ago, now only has bone weary tiredness filling his eyes, completely devoid of the anger everyone saw just a moment ago.

No one knew what to do before Hiccup sighs and just says with a voice that seems to no longer have the emotion that it usually has. Which concerns Heather and Fishlegs to the core.

"Look, you want the leader title? Sure, take it"

Snotlout looked proud as he thinks his effort to attain leadership over him has succeeded, but said "future chief" wasn't finished yet.

"But if you think that I'll be one of the people you'll be oh so gracefully leading. Then by all means, No. Thank. You"

He turns with a rather tired posture as he calls for his dragon to run by to the Clubhouse.

Snotlout was far from pleased, but he sure wasn't done trying to rile up that cousin of his, and decided to go for a point that he would regret to ever mention.

"Ha! The future chief really IS a coward! Now that said girlfriend of yours would see why the Snotman here deserves her better than-"

He was cut off by a loud thump and crash by his right side, to which he noticed is a dagger that was so precisely thrown that it just barely grazed the tip of his right ear, causing it to slightly bleed.

He looked forward to see that Hiccup was indeed the thrower and was extremely scared of what his cousin can do next.

Hiccup then took a deep breath and walked slowly towards his cousin, while making sure to keep his eyesight straight at him.

"Sure, you can say that I don't deserve her…. Or she doesn't deserve to have such a miserable failure of a Viking to be her partner. But" he pulls out the dagger in the process while pausing for a bit.

"But if you ever so mention that YOU out of all the deserving people in the world, deserves HER care, then let's just say that I won't be bothered to knock more than just a tooth out of that disgusting mouth of yours"

He turns around and walked to his dragon that just arrived in the entrance, unbeknownst to what had just occurred in the scene.

Heather extended a hand to try to stop him "Hiccup! Whe-"

"HAHA! Just leave him be Heather. He's just a coward who constantly runs from his problems instead of dealing with em'. Go ahead and go back to being the Useless again Hiccup!" as much as he tried to sound loud and brash, no one could ignore the evident shake in his voice, much more the trembling of his legs as Hiccup hops on to his dragon.

Hiccup can only bring a sad smile to his face, uttering one more sentence before leaving.

"It's nice to feel appreciated around here doesn't it?"

And with an extremely gusty flap of a wing by Toothless (To which Fishlegs determined was intentional), he was off to Odin knows where with no one daring to get on their dragons and chase him down.

Snoutlout puts out a grin as if signifying a victory on a war field. He then turned around with a tough bravado and decided to "address" his new "underlings"

"Gang! You have your new leader! From this day on, the Snotman will be in charge of leading you dragon riders to everyday victory and would be in bid to rule you over the time we are in the Edge"

Heather sharply fires back "Rule over us? That's not what an actual leader would be attempting to persuade his people with"

Snotlout glared at her while addressing to the twins who were "paying" attention "Tuffnut, Ruffnut! You two will in charge of making sure that rules here are followed as order! And as for the first rule that I am issuing, it would be that NO ONE is allowed to speak back towards the leader with such unpleasant demeanor"

Heather can only glare and look away, with Fishlegs whispering to her

"What should we do Heather? Chase after him?"

She can only reply "Not a good idea. With that Night Fury, gods known where he is already reaching by now."

The two can only stare up to the spot where Hiccup was last seen with his Night Fury, with only one thought being in Heather's mind.

 _How would I tell Astrid of all the craziness that happened today?_

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Man...

I wrote this story and I'm utterly pissed at Snotlout...

-Blind


	2. The Oncoming Storm

**Welcome back peeps! First off... I would like to extend a massive thank you all for the overwhelming amount of support that this story got from just the first chapter! To those that have read, followed, favourite, and reviewed. You are all amazing. Those that hasn't done the things mentioned are still cool, but they would be much more cooler if they read this xP**

 **Now a surprising revelation was discovered by me from the review section... Apparently, lots of you wanted Hiccup to actually punch Snotlout xD well you'll get your bit of satisfaction later on as the story progresses :)**

 **Well.. with all that out, I present you chapter TWO of In Days Like This!**

 **ENJOY**

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Squawk of Nadders comes blasting through the sky as the sun comes peering through the horizon. The sound of waves crashing through the cliffs below harmonizes with the sound of waves crashing afar.

Hiccup can only groan in slight annoyance as bright light pierces through his eyelid, forcing him to shield his eyes with his hands before safely opening them.

He let out a yawn as he sat up while cracking his sore back, causing Toothless to grunt in annoyance due to his sleep being interrupted.

"Yeessh. Take it easy prince charming" he blurted out before being smacked on the back of his head by the annoyed beast "Okay okay you can go back to sleep all you want! I'll just be getting breakfast"

He stood up after the dragon basically shoo him off the sleeping spot that they bunked over the night before. Observing the nature around him, he decided to take a deep breath and trudged on to find breakfast for the two of them.

Dragons and all sorts of plants can be observed upon through where he is going, many of which he didn't really get a chance to take a clear look at. All because of the ordeals that he has been going through the past couple of days.

Many wouldn't know the island that he is currently in right now, but he chose said island due to the fact that this was the island where he and Astrid went to have some alone time before Krogan attacked the Edge.

Even though Astrid might remember the location, only Hiccup knew the true background of the island and why he was able to find out about its location.

"The diary of Old Wrinkly" he muttered while pulling out the book from a satchel he managed to retrieve before leaving the Edge. The diary was of his grandfather's who had travel many seas and had recorded most of the things he found inside the diary. Hiccup didn't know of the existence of the book before his father presented it to him a few Snoggeltogs ago. He remembered the exact words that his father said which is "Use it to reach deeper depths of knowledge. Your mother would've wanted you to have this. You're still young and have a lot of spirit within ya. Discover what it is to be found"

He opens the book in one page that he has bookmarked, with the page titled "The Crescent Island" which he specifically bookmarked for a special day out with a certain someone. But now, he has to put that behind in the back of his head and focus on gathering food for him and Toothless to eat before either one of them began to starve.

A few fishes that he caught and bunch of other vegetation that the diary has stated to be safe of consumption, he was ready to make a decent dish out of the ingredients available and set up a campfire.

Luckily for him, logs aren't that much of a trouble to gather due to the fact that when he returned to the sleeping spot where Toothless was, a stack of logs and big pieces of shredded wood is stockpiled up and ready to use with the Night Fury having his eyes half opened, signifying his actions.

Hiccup can only smile as his intelligent buddy already knows what he needs and decided to lighten up his tasks. Leaving him only to light up the fire and start the cooking in progress. He began putting up a campfire while softly saying "Thanks bud" which was replied by a croon form the dragon.

Toothless only watches as his best friend began building the campfire while having an internal turmoil. Part of him really wants to zip back to Edge, possibly hurt that Snotfaced man, and plasma blast the crap out his hut and his stupid "S" that he personally thinks stands for stupid. But he knows that it wouldn't be what Hiccup would've wanted him to do, so all he can do is sit back.

Many questions are also going all around his head, one of them being why did his best friend, the most humane, wisest, and smartest human he had ever have the honor of knowing, would not fight back at the obnoxious Snotfaced man who has so many times annoyed the Hel out of the two of them.

His turmoil had to be cut short when he felt his rider's head lie down against his scaly skin.

"It's been two days bud. No one has come across this island. Not that I expected any of them or even anyone to show up around here" he said. It is true that this island isn't really a place where people could accidentally find. The fog around it and the peculiar direction it strayed made it quite a difficult spot to find. Even Hiccup who had the map of the exact whereabouts of the island had to do a couple of retracing before eventually clearing the fog and finding the island.

Toothless can only croon softly, knowing that that isn't the only thing that Hiccup has in mind right now.

"I wonder how they're all holding up" he began, while slowly tilting his face towards Toothless but not making eye contact as well "Fishlegs and Heather that is, I don't give a yak ass about the other three in the Edge. I'm just hoping that those two can cope with the others. Heck maybe even Astrid is already…. there…."

The last words are spoken in such a softer and slower tone that Toothless nudges his rider, understanding the conflict that is occurring right inside of him.

"Yeah bud I really really miss her. I know you miss Stormfly too, but we can't go back now, not when things are still in jeopardy out of everything that happened" Hiccup can only sadly say.

They sat together is silence for a while before a sudden movement from Toothless alerts Hiccup to the dragon's effort of moving.

"What is it bud?" he asked while Toothless seemingly attempts to grab on a small stick that was laying around them. Hiccup only watches in amusement as his dragon struggles to get ahold of the stick, before giving up and decide to use his own mouth to pick it up and held it on a direction that seemingly pointed at the diary.

Hiccup followed the stick and takes a look at the diary, before tilting his head in confusion and moving it closer to the dragon "You wanna show something bud?" he asked in confusion.

Toothless scanned the page that was opened before dropping the stick at the page and nods to the diary as if he is urging his rider to take a look. Which he indeed takes a look at to find out that it is pointing at the word "fart".

"Fart?" Hiccup asked "You're trying to tell me that you farted?"

His dragon only huffs and takes a look and realizes the mistake he made. He nudged the stick a bit with his paws before huffing again to urge Hiccup to once again, take a look.

Hiccup looked over and realizes that his dragon pointed at the word "why".

"Why?" he started "Why what? Bud I can't really understand you as much as I am impressed with how you're trying to communicate with me"

Toothless then nudged towards the cliffs, or more specifically the edges of the cliff. Trying to show what he truly wants to know.

"The cliffs? Cliff edges? The- Oh! The Edge!? You're trying to ask me why I let go of the Edge?"

Toothless nods excitingly at first, but then resorted to the same posture and expression to when he handed back the manual saddle to Hiccup after getting rid of the automatic one during Snoggletog, as in showing that he does not want to press on if it was too tough to explain, which Hiccup can only smile gratefully about.

"It's okay bud, I knew I would have to vent about this to someone sooner or later" he said understandingly. He retreated to the same position as he was before they both got up and sat down with a heavy sigh.

He then began explaining "Before I met you Toothless, or rather… "shot" you down, I was really trying to do everything that I can to impress my dad, and convince him that I can become a Viking like he is, or at least, live up to a certain degree of reputation as his son"

Toothless listened intently, urging his rider to continue.

"But since I basically had no advantage or anything of specialty in my physical capability, I try to make stuff. Things that would sometimes work but most people only focus on the times when it didn't work. That's when Snotlout and the twins came in to play." He had to stop for a moment as he was basically about to go through the past that he didn't really want to relive anymore, but was willing to in order for Toothless to gain some clarity of his reasoning behind giving the leadership to Snotlout.

"Those times were… rather harsh for me. They would constantly ridicule me to the point of physical beating, and would constantly call me "Hiccup the Useless" due to the many times I created problems around the village. Heck they even used me as a scapegoat to get away from the problems that they caused, which if I counted correctly, happened way more often than the times I caused it"

Okay now Toothless didn't want to only "possibly" hurt Snotlout. He wants to blast that atrocious hut of his while making sure that the owner is inside. He doesn't really care whether that coward survives or not but he just wants to send him straight to Hel personally as the assumed offspring of lightning and death itself.

But he stayed quiet, making sure not to interrupt his riders venting.

"That's really most of the reason of why I didn't punch back, why I kept both my hands to my side and didn't judge by anger"

Toothless perked to hear his final statement.

To which Hiccup says with a sad smile.

"I'm not a bully…. Violence is never the key to solving problems. Punching him then and there would make me and him no different. Just two different souls with differing experience of life leading up to One. Breaking. Point"

The magnitude of the silence of nature was so immense that it Hiccup probably thought the gods were watching below and were silenced by the statements made by a mere mortal.

At least… that's how it felt like.

But all they can really hear was the prickling sound of the fire that is threatening to burn out their breakfast, which quickly brought Hiccup's attention back to the reality in front of him.

"Well… what can you do anyways? What's happened has happened and I wouldn't say that I totally regret what I've done and chose to do up until this point" He smiled at his dragon, who returned with his one of a kind gummy grin.

Hiccup chuckles and just casually blurts out while prepping their breakfast "I wonder what's going on in the Edge at this time… things going smooth the "Snotlout" way?"

This caused his dragon to induce his laughing voice and have his rider chuckle along as well.

Unbeknownst to Hiccup though, he guessed right in both the aspects.

Back at the Edge, things were going smoothly.

Well… the Snotlout way. As Hiccup has mentioned beforehand.

Hours later, here they are gathered in the Clubhouse, stacking objects that was deemed as relative to Hiccup.

Apparently, as part of his new program of "Reimagining the Edge the Snotlout Way" he intends to burn away every single trace of Hiccup's inventions or things that he made in order to erase any kind of object that he deemed to be "threatening" to his leadership stability.

At least… that's according to him anyway. Heather and Fishlegs just kept finding things that are some sort of a loophole in this new "program"

"You mean to burn all of them?" Heather asked as Snotlout piled up a bunch of Toothless's tailfins to burn up. Which would probably upset the Night Fury and the creator to an extent where the burner gets burned. Or blasted in the dragon's case.

"Yup. All of them! Not a single trace should be left behind or else one of you would be punished for neglecting the leader's orders!" Snotlout replied with such a mock up brave tone.

"Like everything? Everything he designed? Everything he contributed to? Everything he ever planned?" Fishlegs asked for clarification.

Snotlout only huffs and raises his voice "YES! ALL OF THEM! NOW DON'T MAKE ME REPEAT MYSELF OR THERE WILL BE BLO- ehm- _consequences_ , that will apply to those who keeps questioning the leader"

Fishlegs and Heather hums in cohesion. Almost in satisfaction really, as FIshlegs pipes up "Well, we better dismantle the Edge then. After all, Hiccup did design the whole base soooo"

Snotlout only sneers at him "Ha! Nice try fish face, but I have laid claims to the plans and I declare that as the leader, the plans belong to me and only me!"

Heather then began piping up next "Then we should destroy our weapons as well then, considering that Hiccup regularly tends to them, even when we don't ask him to do so"

The Jorgenson wasn't about to go down that easily "Doesn't count! The weapon is still ours to keep and out of my pity, I will let you keep yours as well. Wouldn't want to be responsible for deaths around here"

Fishlegs continued "How about the map? I guess we should destroy that since Hiccup practically made it ALL by himself"

"Then I have laid claim to it" the "leader" curtly replies.

"How about the stables lock?" Heather asks

"Claimed it"

"The food recipes?"

"Claimed it"

"The Night Terrors Security system?

"Claimed that too"

"Your-"

"SHUT! UUUUPPPPP!"

Snotlout charged forward towards Heather, who was instantly dragged behind his back by Fishlegs who blocked Snotlout's charge and stood there trying to heightening himself up to look bigger "Get your filthy and disgusting hands off of her or I wouldn't hesitate to bring you down"

Heather had to admit that that was quite brave of him and… sexy even?

Snotlout placed both of his hands on his hips and put up a face that mocks at Fishlegs's attempt at standing up to him

"Oooooh the Fishy wants to play tough now huh? You can't even punch me even if gave you every chance I can possibly give to you!"

Fishlegs, being…. well… Fishlegs was rather cowed down by that statement, but little did he knew that Heather pushed forward with a confident stance "Maybe he can't do that because he's quit the gentleman! Me on the other hand. I can punch each and every one your bones while counting the number of hits that I've managed to hit on you during so!"

Deep inside, Snotlout was absolutely terrified. But remained his tough bravado and snapped his fingers to send the twins forward.

Heather can only scowl "Huh. Such a Snotlout move! Talk about calling Hiccup a coward. Look at you now! Poor Snotlout needs his mama?"

Tuffnut tries to interject in "Hey! Take that back or punishment shall fall upon you!"

"At this point I don't give a yak ass. You both are disgusting! You all are! Just bullies who can't even get a kick out of their life and just decides to kick down others who actually DESERVES to be happy!" Heather shot back.

"Oh is that so? Then why don't you call on your dear Hiccup to rescue you? Go on, get him! Oh wait? What's that? You don't even KNOW where he is because he's too much of a coward to even stick around for a little while, let alone lead you all!"

All the bickering and the loud shouting made it impossible for them to hear anything from outside the Clubhouse due to the doors being shut. Hence why they didn't hear:

The soft thump of something landing a distance bit away.

The sound of a hut door opening and closing back down after a while.

The sound of footsteps that are inching closer to the Clubhouse door.

And the loud annoyed grunt right outside the door.

 **BAM!**

The Clubhouse shook with such intensity that it actually rumbles the entire building and even caused multiple items to fall off shelves and the table.

They then realized that the apparent cause of this, is due to the Clubhouse door being jerked, or rather kicked so hard that it actually slams up so hard it got stuck at the beams above and sends loud tremors throughout the portion of the island. Only Heather realizing soon enough and thought

 _This is about to get interesting…._

Faraway from there, Hiccup senses a tingling sensation going through his spine while observing some of the new plants her just discovered.

He can't help but just smile. A pure smile that is.

Back at the Clubhouse, they all slowly directed their eyes to the source of such violent tremor, only to see the one thing that they never ever want to have to deal with face to face.

One

Extremely

Angry

Astrid

Hofferson

She only stood there. Giving them time to realize how utterly screwed they are, before shouting in a voice that equals the sound of raging Screaming Death.

"WHAT IN THOR'S NAME IS HAPPENING HERE!?"

* * *

 **Uh ohh**

 **Astrid's pissed...**

 **I think I'll be having lots of fun writing the next chapter :)**

 **-Blind**

 **P.S Did anyone get what i was referencing at in the chapter name? Props to you if you did :)**


	3. Beauty of the Storm

**Back at it again with this story peeps! Hope I didn't make you all wait for too long! First off as usual, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for the support this story has been having, reviews, follows, and favs were outstanding and thank you all for providing me motivation to write more stories during these busy school times XD.**

 **Quick Warning to all you readers, this chapter is EXTREMELY long. More than 6000 words in fact and it includes all sort of things going on in this chapter!**

 **Also, special shoutout to harrypanther for pointing out the reference made in the name of the previous chapter :D**

 **With all that aside! I present to youuuu In Days Like This Chapter 3!**

 **ENJOY!**

* * *

Astrid was pissed.

Forget about being pissed, she's all the way beyond that.

Even though zipping on Stormfly's back knowing that she's going back to the Edge is usually a joyful trip for her, especially knowing that she's coming back to _him_. But things were just too frustrating for her to even think about what she's coming back to.

Not only did her parents managed to force her to stay an extra day, Spitelout just had to bring up THAT topic. In front of the Chief no less.

She grits her teeth in recollection of what that blasted brother of the Chief mentioned the night before.

 _Less Than 15 Hours ago…_

 _Puffs of white smoke can be spotted from her breath. It's been a rather chilly night back on Berk, but nothing too surprising for the axe wielding warrior._

 _What's surprising is that she was able to catch a conversation in the Great Hall, which should be empty at this time of the day._

 _A little peek wouldn't hurt right? As a matter of fact, she had actually left her axe on one of the table there after some "discussions" with her parents._

 _She pushed the great big door open with a careful force as to not alert whoever it is was having a conversation. Walking slowly across the tables and she finally spotted her axe leaning firmly towards one of the table in the far edges._

 _She was about to grab it before spotting three men sitting together on a table quite near to the center._

 _Three men whom she's known quite well._

 _Stoick, Spitelout, and her father Augusto._

 _What in the world could they be discussing about? This late in the day as well.._

 _Deciding that it wouldn't be anything of importance, she decided to try and sneak back out. But stopped dead in her tracks when she caught a whiff of what they are discussing._

" _He's near of age Stoick, I suppose you should be takin a betrothal to consideration at this point aye?" her father sounded out._

 _Her ears perked up with this new information, but she's more interested on finding who this 'he' is._

 _The Chief was next to speak up "Aye yes Gusto, but I'd rather have him figure that out by himself, rather than forcing something on him. Tried that in the past and it nay end well. I'd rather have Hiccup find his true one rather than setting him up for diplomatic purposes"_

 _She lets out an extremely light yet audible gasp, causing the three to instantly tilt their heads towards the source of the sound. Astrid had quickly clasp her mouth with her hand and prayed to Odin that they didn't spot her._

 _Spitelout piped up "Bah, probably just the wind. Besides the interruption, how's your daughter been coming along Augusto?"_

 _Astrid could see the discomfort in Augusto's stance. She had known that Spitelout seemed dead set on getting his oh-so-glorious son to marry her, but to her relief, both her parents are not great fans of this idea._

" _She's coming along fine Spitelout, but if you're still going to try and hand me a proposition on getting her to marry your boyo, I'll personally set Astrid herself on your back" her father answered sternly, which brought a smile to Astrid's smile._

 _But she didn't expect the next part._

" _Besides, I'd figure that she'd probably be best set with your son Stoick"_

 _Astrid had to hold herself from squealing, knowing that her father agrees with her choices. Her OWN choices that is._

 _But things seemed to go downhill after, as Spitelout couldn't really take a no for an answer._

" _Hiccup? No offence Stoick but me Snotlout is twice the man your ole' Hiccup will ever be in his lifetime"_

 _That caused Astrid to visibly sizzle, if anyone was there to see her she would've been told that smoke was coming out of her ears. Lucky for her, she didn't need to be shouting at the old fart as Stoick's stern voice was enough to compensate for it._

" _Watch your words brother, I may be aging but doesn't mean I can't still rip your spine clean off your back" the giant said. But even with the threat, it didn't cow down Spitelout as much as Astrid would've wanted._

" _Be that as it may, but Snotlout is more of the Viking one is supposed to be! Hiccup is a scrawny boyo who goes around with his machineries and everythin. Being a silly geek with that chubby… Fishface-"_

" _Fishlegs" Stoick interjected "His name is Fishlegs, and if you keep spouting all this nonsensical statement this wouldn't end too well for you" he added with a bit of venom._

 _Spitelout just headed on "Look I'm just trying to point out the better for the lass. She's a warrior, wouldn't she want a warrior who's in equal or even better than her?"_

 _Without missing a beat, an axe was thrown right at the table, being lodged right next to Spitelout's right arm. The man in question instantly jumped off his chair, wondering who his assailant was. Meanwhile, Augusto and Stoick can only sigh and feel sympathetic. Augusto would recognize that axe anywhere and Stoick can identify who threw that axe easily._

 _Stoick sighed once more "Astrid dear, you know we can't have the tables constantly replaced due to axe lodging onto it every other day"_

 _He turned back to look at a fuming Astrid who was steadily walking towards their table maintaining her intimidating stance "Apologies Chief, but I think I heard enough and I'd figured that you wouldn't mind to excuse my actions right after this"_

 _The Chief could only take a quick look at Augusto, who shrugs while raising his hands while whispering "She has her mother's spirit" Stoick looked back towards the table while softly saying "Aye I second that me self"_

 _Astrid went up to the stunned Jorgenson and quickly grabbed down the collar of his shirt, placing his face right in front of hers._

" _Listen here you smelly unpleasant yak ass, I don't care WHAT you think you are or WHO you think you are, but my future is my future and I quite certainly don't like an egoistic old man like you to try and meddle around it. So Back OFF" she said while pushing the Jorgenson off balance and let him drop to the floor while asking "Do I make myself clear?"_

 _Spitelout could only squeak out a small "C-Crystal…" he could only watch in fear as Astrid yanked her axe off the table and slammed its head to the floor while uttering "Besides, if I were to judge, and I HAVE judged. Hiccup is ten times the man he is now, than Snotlout would ever be in HIS lifetime" and with that finishing sentence the cowering old man had to sprint for his life as he felt her murderous glare all the way until he made it out of the door._

 _Soon after the door slammed shut, Astrid heaved a breath of relief and turned towards the two men standing before her "Sorry Chi-"_

 _Stoick raised his hands to stop her talking "It's Stoick lass, you don't have to be official around me. And if you're thinking to apologize, do not. If anything, we are proud that a young warrior like you was able to put him back to his spot, until now I still don't know how we are somehow related"_

 _Astrid shared a smile at that statement "Believe me Chi- I mean- Stoick, I still can't believe that Hiccup is related to Snotlout"_

 _The three chuckled at the statement, before Augusto cleared his throat "*Uhum* So Astrid let me ask you one question" he waited for her to nod before continuing "When you said you have already judged, does that mean that you are..?" he gestured the rest of his question with his hands with Stoick also realizing the meaning behind his question._

 _Astrid let out a soft smile while fidgeting with her fingers, blushing as she looked down "Well…. If you mean to ask whether we are betrothed, then… I would say… yes?" she questioned with a gleaming look in her eyes before being shocked by her father as he spun her around in the air with wild laughter of joy._

" _I CANNOT BELIEVE IT! MY DAUGHTER HAS GROWN UP SO MUCH! AHHAHA!" Astrid can only laugh along as he put her down while asking "When did all this happened? Why didn't you tell me sooner?"_

 _Astrid could only reply "It was about 8 moon cycles ago. I didn't tell right away since Hiccup himself wanted to tell you personally"_

 _Augusto can only beam with pride as his daughter has finally chosen her OWN partner for life. Meanwhile Stoick moved forward while placing a hand on both her shoulder "When I gave Hiccup that pendant to give to his betrothed, I knew deep inside that it was going to be you. You have brought soo much out of him, that I can't express how lucky we are to have you as part as our family, and also for him to have you. Congratulations lass"_

 _The blonde replied back "It's all the same for me Stoick, he helped me gain a new perspective on how the world works. How peace can actually come true, especially in a time of dire circumstances, he showed me the light. And I'm very lucky indeed to have him in my life"_

 _Stoick smiled softly "You deserve him, much as he does deserve you in his life"_

 _Astrid nods as well as Augusto, but then Stoick has something to add "But I want you to not tell Hiccup that we both already knew. We would like to see the nervous wreck of my son try facing the both of us for our blessings. To which I say, and I'm very sure I speak for Augusto as well, that you have both of our full blessing" he ended with a smile._

 _Astrid then began to remember something "Oh I almost forgot, other than retrieving my axe, I actually wanted to inform you that I will be leaving at first light tomorrow morning. Hence I would like to bid my farewells tonight, I've told mother and we've said our see you's"_

 _The two men nodded, Augusto went forward for a hug "Well then you best be on your way, we will see you when the time is right once again, although I'm sure that it wouldn't be long" he said while giving her a hug and a kiss on her forehead. Stoick moved forward and placed a hand on her shoulders._

" _Be careful flying there lass. Tell Hiccup his father says hi"_

 _Astrid smile and said "I will, see you when the time is right Stoick" and with that she ran towards the exit while waving out to the two men, leaving them once again on their own._

 _Stoick sighed "Aaah the youth of today. They grow up so fast"_

 _Augusto chimed in "Says the one who married in his twenties, of course the youth would go on faster ha Stoick?"_

 _Stoick laughed and gave a small shove to his friend "Keep your mouth shut Hofferson" and the two laughed as they headed for the exit and their respective homes._

* * *

Well to the day's credit at least that flashback ended in a rather positive note.

Her frown slowly turned into a genuine smile when she thought of coming back to _him_.

She planned to just skip the entire base and go straight to the landing pad instead. Where she would like to hope that he'll be keeping his promise.

After finding an island to rest up for the night, she got up rather quickly the next morning.

Wind is blowing through her hair, the sensation that she longed to enjoy has finally arrived.

But unfortunately for her, those moments were short lived.

The Edge has come to view and she urged Stormfly to fly a little bit faster so that she can make up for the time that she has lost over the last few hours. Quickly descending towards the landing pad, her expressions quickly falters as she noticed that he wasn't there.

Now that she has a closer look it seems like Toothless is not even in the stables.

She thought that Toothless must be in his hut, so she decided to unpack her stuff from Stormfly, take her saddle off, and told her to fly straight to her hut to get some well-deserved rest.

Taking in the view, she Hiccup's hut with the door wide open, which seemed… off to her.

' _Hiccup never leaves the door open, unless he's only there to grab something'_ she thought. So she waited for a few minutes, but not a single soul came out of the hut or went in it even. She decided that she'll just walk over and pay him a visit herself, thinking maybe he had forgotten or something.

Which saddens her a little but hey, everyone forgets sometimes right?

' _Not her Hiccup no, something like this he wouldn't forget'_ her mind tried to interject, but she swatted it off not wanting to judge him that way.

She reached his hut only to gasps at the sight that she seen.

It's completely empty.

And it wasn't just any normal kind of empty either, everything has been taken off the desk the walls, most notable is the fact that his sketches are no longer on the desk, and Toothless's uncalculated number of spare tailfins are also no longer there.

This worried Astrid to the core.

And now when she realized it, she hasn't seen any of the other Riders around the base.

Were they kidnapped?

Did someone attack the base?

Or did someone just decided to loot the entire thing when the Riders are out.

The last one seemed a bit crazy but considering her situation she didn't relly think twice about it.

That is until she heard voices.

She pointed her head towards the source of the voices and sure enough it pointed towards the Clubhouse.

With its doors closed.

In the middle of the day.

She thought to herself as she walked over to the Clubhouse, wondering what might've happened to cause these changes. A change in procedures? A change in the base's management system? Or even a change of leadership?

Yea right, who could possibly lead the Riders besides him and her.

The voices grew louder and louder, and it's not only because she's getting closer to the building, but the voices itself actually increases in volume.

She could begin to make out Snotlout's voice.

She tried to eavesdrop from the other side of the door. Where she could hear two other people talking in turns.

' _Is that Heather and Fishlegs? What are they arguing about?'_

She tried to listen even more closely before a loud "SHUT! UP!" was bellowed that made her have to take her ears off the door.

' _Odin what the hell is wrong with him, besides, everything that is'_ she thought.

Fishlegs voice grew louder as he said in muffled tone ""Get your filthy and - hands off - her or I wouldn't - to bring you down"

' _Are they fighting?'_

"Ooooh Fishy wants to play tough now huh?"

' _Okay they're definitely fighting'_

She tried to lift open the door, but the damn thing was jammed from the inside. She could only listen as more shouting. She hit on the door as hard as she could but were muffled over the sound of bickering.

Until she heard a sentence.

"Call on-Hiccup to rescue you! Go-. Wait, - because he's too much of a COWARD"

That.

Settles it.

Astrid had a scowl on her face from the moment she was standing in front of the Clubhouse, but now, it turns into a growl.

A very loud growl that is.

She pulled her right leg back, whilst spotting the part of the door that has the most pivot, so that she could impact it and cause a traction upwards.

She pulled.

 **SLAM!**

The door is now stuck on the ceiling.

And there stood five people, all cowering behind an object or anything they could deem worthy of hiding behind. Except for Heather that is, all she had was a smirk.

And of course she noticed.

Hiccup isn't one of them.

She shouted as loud as she could

"WHAT IN THOR'S NAME IS HAPPENING HERE!?"

No one made a single move of a muscle, even Heather who was smirking a second ago was now staring wide eyed at her.

"I've been hearing this bickering for OVER 10 MINUTES and NOBODY seemed to have noticed even the biggest of knocks on the door! Is this what you all resort to when I'm not around? Speaking of being around, WHERE THE HEL IS HICCUP!?"

She looked around expecting him to just be out of sight, when in fact. He really wasn't in there.

That is until a certain Snotlout cleared his throat.

Which caught her attention as someone finally had a voice.

But oooh what she would give in order for her to forget the next few moments as he walked over to her in his usually annoying but now more annoying style of walking.

"Astrid" he began "Welcome back to the Edge! We've almost missed you a lot! Starting to get worried that we might've lost our second in command you know"

Her expressions were still stern, but were a little bit less tense than it was before.

"That's good to know and all Snotlout but I need to talk Hiccup, can anyone even explain to me where he's gone off to this time?

"Ooooh him? He left." Snotlout replied shortly.

Astrid was not amused.

"Haha very funny Snotlout, seriously though where is he? Before I ran my axe through the entire building"

No one said a thing. Only a few nervous fidgeting courtesy of FIshlegs and a few eyes wandering here and there as if they were trying to find an easy answer out of this.

"Guys? Seriously what's with the whole fidgeting? Surely one of you SHOULD know where he's gone off to this time?"

While everyone was ignorant or frozen in spot, Heather walked slowly towards her "Astrid, it is for real, he actually left"

She could not believe her best friend.

Hiccup? Leaving the Edge with no leader? Not in a million years.

That is until Heather started explaining "There was a small skirmish…. Between us and the hunters, just the simple fly-by bombing we usually do, but for some reason this time-"

She didn't get to finish her sentence as she was pulled back rather harshly by the Jorgenson who tried to speak "That's enough from her, I'll brief you on the re-"

 **BAM**

Well karma certainly is annoying.

And now Snoutlout is certain that he has a broken nose.

"She wasn't finished Jorgenson, Heather! Mind continuing?"

Heather cleared her throat, before continuing "The others were… unsettled to say the least, and they decided to question Hiccup and his leadership and Snotlout there seems to really want to lead us"

"Who questioned his leadership again?" Astrid asked with a fiery breath.

Heather pointed her fingers at Snotlout and the twins, who are assisting him to get him back up to his feet and check on his nose. In the meantime, Fishlegs inched closer towards the two girls, continuing Heather's explanation.

"You should've seen it Astrid, Hiccup was basically as furious as you are right now. We all expected a punch to Snotlout who was taunting him over being the "better" leader"

Astrid interjected "Let me guess, he didn't punch him?"

Fishlegs rubs the back of his neck while saying "Well… you know him better than I do sooo"

Astrid can only sigh

' _Of course he didn't, he's that kind of guy… prefers to use words over punches'_

She asked again "But surely he didn't hand over the leadership right? He's just cooling off somewhere?"

The two of them began looking at each other in discomfort, before Heather began to speak "Astrid, Snotlout is now-"

"The leader! Yes you heard that right Astrid sunshine, you are currently looking at the leader of the Edge and the Dragon Riders"

To say she was shocked was an understatement.

"WHAT!?" she asked out loud.

"YOU? LEADER? OH THOR GIVE ME A BREAK!" before stampeding forward towards the seemingly calm Jorgenson.

"You better tell me where Hiccup had gone, or I swear to Odin himself that I'm going to tear your limb and feed t to Hookfang part by part"

She held his collar up, trying to force an answer out of him, before he just swatted her hand away and began speaking

"Astrid from the moment I saw our group, I knew… I was the one who was supposed to take control. I'm a Jorgenson! We don't ask permission to be great! So I told your dear Hiccup, which should change to dear me now that I'm the leader. Anyways, so I told him that his leadership skills are lacking. He is nowhere near how a Viking is supposed to be, all geeky and nerdy and scrawny like that! Who is he fit to be leader?"

Astrid held back for now, wondering how many more idiocy can he pour out in a single speech.

"Meanwhile, look at me! Muscular, good looking, got a lot of ladies as well! It's clear that I'm the one who's supposed to be leading! Which is why we were in the middle of a process to reimagine this base"

"Oh yeah?" Astrid quipped "How is that supposed to go then?"

"By erasing these of course" he showed to the dark mound that was assembled in the center of clubhouse.

She took a closer look, before turning wide eyed.

"Those are all of Hiccup's stuff!" she yelled.

"Yes indeed my dear Astrid, with this being out of the picture we can finally move on to reimagining the Edge to the perfect base it should've been and also live our future together hand in hand. And what I mean by that is you and me, Astrid" he said in a rather dramatic fashion.

She wasn't sure that she heard it right but did he just say her and him?

"Excuse ME!?"

Snotlout turned towards the mound of Hiccup's belongings "Out of all the people in this room, you should know by now that I was, and still am, deeply in love with you. You can't deny it Astrid, you and me!? A match made in Valhalla! We'll the perfect couple everyone wants to be!"

Astrid was ready to just destroy everything at this point, but decided to give the sap a chance in being sane again.

"I don't know if you have noticed, over like let's say hmm… the past 6 MONTHS! I am betrothed and even if I am not, there's no way that I'll chose you or ANYONE in the world as a matter of fact, over a guy such as Hiccup!"

Snotlout let out a small chuckle "Heh, Hiccup… ooooh Hiccup Hiccup Hiccup" he mutters over and over again while still staring at the mound of items in front of him "Such a scrawny, weird, and physically limited guy like him? And you would choose him over me? Don't be silly Astrid you know that I can serve you better than he could ever do in his lifetime! I'm thrice the man he will ever be in his lifetime! He's just… He's just a…"

Astrid crossed her arms "What? SAY IT! HICCUP IS A WHAT!?"

Snotlout slowly turns around while mentioning the words Astrid never thought would ever hear from anyone around her again.

"He's just Hiccup the USELESS"

 **SLAM**

Before he knew it, he was already launched across the room, broke through the side wall of the Clubhouse and came to a stop on the center of the walkway going to his hut.

He groaned before trying to stand up while remaining in a crouched position as he saw Astrid spinning her axe in her hands, with her sapphire blue eyes turning to a rather dark colored one.

"Say that again?" Astrid said in whisperingly menacing tone but loud enough for him to hear.

Snotlout, not one with a very good brain repeated himself.

"Hiccup is just Useless!"

 **BAM**

Another blow to the side of the head which launches him all the way to the side of his hut and caused him to crash in right at the of his hut.

He barely can feel any part of his body moving now, as he heard the slow footsteps of the extremely angry Hofferson.

She arrived at his door to see the oh-so-great leader Snotlout Jorgenson slapped right in the middle of the hut with his face being covered in gigantic bumps and bruises that she barely can recognize it anymore.

But did she care?

She does NOT give a SINGLE damn.

She was marching forward before two figure interrupted her rampage.

The two figures being none other than the twins.

And here she thought that they would try to bring some sense to the situation. Instead of making it worse.

But then who is she kidding?

"Look Astrid we know that you are more than just upset right now…" Ruffnut started, with Tuffnut following suite "But really there's a justified reason behind all this… mishap"

Astrid placed her axe on her shoulders "Oh really? Care to explain before I CAVE IN ALL THREE OF YOUR HEADS"

"Astrid we are just trying to say that Hiccup really wasn't all that helpful in the battle that we mentioned, he just occasionally disappears and then reappear again!" Ruffnut tried to reason, although she didn't exactly remember how it truly went down due to the fact that she was busy bonking helmets around with her twin.

Astrid knew the answers to these already "And then let me guess, ships just started sinking out of nowhere?"

Tuffnut perked up "Yeah yeah that happened! We didn't really care how it managed to sink by itself but who cares as long as we emerge victorious!" he "proudly" said.

"Did catapults just suddenly stop firing at you all?" Astrid asked once again

"Y-yes- **groans** -they just suddenly stopped… firing" a beaten up but conscious and sitting up Snotlout, supported by the twins tried to answer. In the meanwhile, Heather and Fishlegs were just peeking around the corner to see whether Astrid had killed Snotlout or not, which slightly to their relief, she hasn't.

"And NONE of you knew exactly WHY they did those things!?" Astrid exasperatedly asked.

The three of them gave a small shake of their heads indicating their cluelessness.

"Because when Hiccup "disappeared" HE was shooting holes on the ships, HE was taking out the catapults, HE was manning your backs so that you don't get arrowed from behind, ALL the while, giving YOU incompetent people COMMANDS to follow so that no one else BUT him gets a hard beating from the battle!"

Snotlout was beginning to have a little bit of light in his head, but was still wrapped up in his cousin's antics "B-but why? H-he's just a scrawny guy who can make machineries, but why go through the lengths to make him look like the heroic one!?"

Astrid for the first time in the day, had her expressions change to genuine softness, while slowly saying

"Because that's what a leader does. But he does it to an even more extreme extent because he genuinely hates to see any of us being troubled. Even you guys!" she stopped a bit to gesture to the three of them that are sitting in front of her.

"He's the one who is willing to stay up all night creating battle strategies just so that we have effective battles, he's the one who always tries to get things back in order even when it's not his fault, HE'S the one who constantly attend to your weapons when you just leave them lying around in random places, HE'S the one who is willing to risk anything, even his LIFE, to make sure that we all get out of situations in one piece with or without him"

The three were completely silenced when Astrid chuckled a bit and they spotted something that just drops down to the floor.

A single drop of tear.

Astrid Hofferson, never shed a tear, even when she was expected to.

"I've learned every one of those traits directly. Those are the reasons why I would never choose any other guy over him"

She stopped to wipe her eyes.

"Because Hiccup Haddock is the most caring, most gentle, most respectful, and the most beautiful person that I have ever have the chance and pleasure of knowing, and it destroys me both inside and out, that there are many people in this world who can't witness the passion of such a soul"

The three in front of them can only stare emptily at the floor, as they start to have a sense of where they went wrong.

They've seen Hiccup merely as commanding officer. Rather than noticing what drives him to be the person he is right now.

Heather was already moved to tears, but didn't fully let it flow as she would like to tell this moment to Hiccup if Astrid didn't tell him personally.

A different story for Fishlegs though, he'd been flooding off Heather's shoulder pads through being a cry baby.

Astrid though, seems to have some final words.

"So if anything, you all can be pissed at me all you want, I am hard-headed, I am selfish in some times, and maybe sometimes I just jump to conclusions so much. Yell at me, be mad at me, but for all that's holy in this world"

Everyone went silent. The dragons were no longer roaring, the waves calmed down, and the sky is turning to an evening color of orange that basks the Edge with yellow coats of light. All of them awaiting her sentences.

"Please… Don't… Hurt… HIM"

They all contemplated on this statement, realizing the pressure Hiccup has on his shoulders. Realizing the events that he's been through. All the pain, all the suffering, and now they're just adding it up.

And yet he remained close to them.

He remained dear to them.

He remained caring for them.

And he always gives the best of his efforts for them.

Without expecting anything in return.

Astrid sniffled and held her tears back, before turning around to leave. But not before Heather stopped her.

"Astrid? Where are you going now?"

She smiles a bit before replying "Finding our leader"

Heather was a bit surprised that she was going so soon… AND alone "You want me to go with you? I could saddle up Windshear if you wan-"

"No it's okay" Astrid cuts in "Besides…"

"I might have an idea of where he might be…"

* * *

Meanwhile...

Back at the Crescent Island…

Things just went from "I want to stay here forever" for Hiccup, to "Odin please let me get through this hell hole in one piece"

It's not like he messed up big time or anything.

But who would expect a random herd of wild and uncontrollable Typhoomerangs to just come firing down from the clouds above?

And here he is.

Surrounded by ten of them alongside Toothless who is tiring very quickly, with only the Inferno on his disposal.

He knew that if he does not come up with a plan fast, then he'll get singed to bits.

Not like that hasn't happened already, battered ribs, a scorned cheek, and a bunch of bruises here and there and everywhere just sums up Hiccup's luck with injuries.

Damn… he does not like this one bit.

But then he notices something that seems to be leaking out of the plants that are currently surrounding them.

And if he remembers correctly, those are the same exact type of gas that the Zipplebacks use to create explosions of fire.

Now if he could just get it spread around a bit more…

"Toothless! Fire on the ground near those leaking plants" he said to his dragon, who obliged by quick firing the ground near plants, kicking up a cloud of dust which carries over the gasses to the perimeter of the Typhoomerangs.

He slowly counted as the clouds of gas spread closer to them.

One…

Two…

THREE!

"NOW BUD!" he signals for Toothless to curl around him as he activates his Inferno. Which combusted the gas and created a circle of explosions around them, effectively scaring the Typhoomerangs away.

But unbeknownst to them. One of the Typhoomerangs managed to swing its lengthy tail towards Hiccup and actually sent him smashing to the side of the rock formations leading up to the mountain.

 **CRACK**

Well that didn't sound good.

He opens his eyes only to realize that he is slowly losing consciousness, with his sight fading away.

' _Did I hit my head to hard this time?'_ he thought, meanwhile Toothless bounded over tired and worried on the condition of his rider.

Hiccup smiles the best he can and scratches the chin of his dragon, believing that the time probably has come.

' _This isn't such a bad place to finish things up'_ he tried to think positively.

Waterfall continues to splash on the river just meter away from him, dragons are squawking here and there as if an infernal hell hasn't just occurred, the trees and plants waving peacefully as the wind caresses them.

Such a beautiful place and with his best friend to lay rest beside him.

Not that bad of a way to go.

Slowly, his vision fades, everything turned blurry. But his consciousness didn't fully leave him before he heard one final squawk of a dragon.

He thought it was important.

But his vision has given up…

And he thinks that it's time as well…

As his vision turns to black, he uttered out.

"So long…"

and Black.

…..

Black was all he can see and experience for the longest of times.

Before a bright orange gradient starts to come to vision.

The gradient was wavering. As if it is waving towards him.

He tried to move his hand, wanting to reach for the gradient waveform

Before he realizes that he couldn't move his hand. Not only due to exhaustion but also by the fact that it is clamped shut.

Slowly, he realized that he was starting to see something else.

It is white.

Bright and determined.

Along with a hint of sapphire blue tinted all over it.

Colors that seemed to be all too familiar with him.

Until he slowly opens his eyes.

Right in front of him is a campfire that provides him warmth through his efforts of waking up. Right across from the campfire was a dragon, which he couldn't truly focus on, but recognizing it's powerful bright blue color.

That is before he realizes that there is a black mass surrounding him, or more like a mound really he couldn't tell it was really soft.

He then recognizes that it is Toothless curling up around him.

Then what is this soft material that he was laying on?

A blanket, folded to provide comfort for his probably injured head.

He tried to move his hand once again, but still couldn't as he still felt it being clasped together by… something. He traced his left hand that he couldn't move only to see that...

There is another hand on top of it.

One with very milky white skin.

He slowly turned his head up sideways.

And finds two sapphire blue eyes staring at his emerald orbs with such intensity that it radiated an aura of the bright blue it already is.

She was smiling as well.

Hiccup can only muster a weak call

"A-As-Astrid?"

He felt her hand caress his cheek, which he nuzzled against as he missed it oh so much.

"Welcome back Dragon Boy…"

* * *

 **That's it...**

 **Thats's the End...**

 **LOL Just kidding there's still like 1-2 more chapters left so don't sweat xD**

 **If any you noticed, instead of only punching him, I gave Snotlout a taste of Astrid's punch and Axe hitting skills. But I also put in words as it follows my ideology of choosing the peaceful way instead of resorting to violence.**

 **Hint for next chapter? Well... Hiccstrid :)**

 **Thank You All for Reading!**

 **-Blind**


	4. Valkyrie in Sight

**Heyyoo Peepos! Am back with anotha chapteerrr. Once again, thank you all for the massive support this story has been receiving! I even got a viewer all the way from Trinidad, which is awesome on how the range of this site can share people's creation to quite literally anywhere :D**

 **Soo, this chapter is extremely fluffy. Like Xtreme extreme kind of thing. Still within the T rating range tho so now worries about encountering anything unsettling in this one :P**

 **Anyways, as usual with all that aside I present to you In Days Like This, CHAPTAA FOOOOOH**

 **ENJOY!**

 **P.S please do read the note in the end of the story, there are a couple of things addressed there :P**

* * *

"A-Astrid?"

"Welcome back Dragon Boy"

Hiccup is definitely confused.

Is he dead?

Is this Valhalla?

He tried to turn his head around to check on his surroundings, only to slam back down on the blanket due to the excruciating pain on his neck.

"Hey don't move your neck too much. You took a pretty hard hit back there so take it easy for a bit" Astrid softly said while ruffling his hair.

Hiccup blinked in confusion before speaking in a rather raspy, but confident voice.

"I didn't know that Valhalla included a Valkyrie that looked as beautiful as you"

Astrid chuckled, still ruffling the auburn locks, while making sure that the bandage that she applied was still firm "I'm flattered o' future chief, but you're not dead silly. You blacked out right when I got to you, you lost quite a bit of blood but nothing that's extremely concerning"

Hiccup lets out a small smile "So, I'm not dying?"

His girlfriend laughed and bent down and gave a kiss on his forehead before replying with her fullest of affection

"Not on my watch Dragon Boy, you won't get away that easily"

The auburn heir can only smile and give back a playful retort "Well even when I'm driving myself away from the world, you still went from edge to edge to find me again"

He regrets his words when he notices that her expression falters right as he finished his sentences "A-and b-by driving myself away… I mean-"

"It's okay Hiccup I know…" she cuts him off

"Oh okaaaay what?" his expressions changed to confusion "You know about what?" he jerked his head up forgetting that his neck was still in massive pain, causing him to once again, instantaneously drop his head back to the blanket on her lap, slightly grunting to the sudden shock of pain.

Astrid placed her hand on his head once again to prevent him from making any movement that might cause him more pain "Hey! I told you to stop moving your neck too much"

He can only respond through gritted teeth "M'sorry… just a bit… confused, that's all"

He heard her sighing, before hearing the words that he really didn't want to deal with at the current time.

"I went back to the Edge earlier"

His eyes widen, flashbacks of what happened days before that, went flooding back through his memories.

Well…

He knew that he would be confronted about this sooner or later.

And of course out of all the people that could confront him on this matter topic, _she's_ the one that came up to the task.

Not that it surprised him though.

"Y-yeah the Edge, uuuuh h-how're things handling on there? I assume that things are just peachy now that I'm not uuuuh, _leading_ " he half nervously and half sarcastically asked that as he was sure to the core, that things weren't all THAT peachy.

"Well, things _were_ peachy, at least that's how a certain someone would view it" Astrid began, causing Hiccup to grimace a bit before she continued "I have to amid I was a bit surprised by the sight that greeted me when I arrived"

Hiccup scoffed "What, the Night Terrors are gone, or was the landing pad half destroyed to bits?"

She replied rather casually "True… now that you mentioned it, I didn't spot any of the Night Terrors being in their station. But I'm more surprised with the fact that your hut was completely ransacked. Everything from sketches, tailfins, your forging materials were all just gone"

She watched with intent as his eyes widened a bit, his shoulders going tense, but was rather surprised to hear his point of acquirement.

"What happened? Did someone decided to take out the Edge? Were the others okay?"

' _Of course he wouldn't care about his items. As much as he loved them he would rather lose everything made rather than letting anyone go'_ she thought about her one of a kind boyfriend, before continuing her story.

"Oh they're all fine. As a matter fact, the twins and Snotlout had all your items clumped together in the center of the Clubhouse" she paused to let him process that statement.

She could feel him breathing a sigh of relief "Considerate enough aren't they?" he asked being slightly rhetorical.

"Yeaaah, I would say that they were considerate enough to gather up your stuff"

' _Huh, they've still got a little bit of consideration for me I guess?'_ he had rather hoped that they had a bit of thinking and to appreciate what he had left back there.

"If they weren't about to burn all of them that is, then I would've called them considerate" she dropped the bomb on him.

Well he didn't know what to expect really.

"Huh… forget about being considerate then, they all totally hate and despise me" _'Which seemed to follow my trail of mind more than the alternative'_

Before she could interject, he quickly followed up with another with another question.

"Any destruction that happened after I was gone?"

She pretended to act as if she was trying to remember things "Well… when I left to go chase you from edge to edge" she emphasized while giving him a sharp glare, to which he could only respond with a guilty smile "All they had to think about was the gaping holes that the Clubhouse and Snoutlot's hut has"

Hiccup, unfazed by the news, decided to pick a bit of fun out of it "Let me guess. The twins?"

Which, to his surprise, she shook her head.

"Huh" he began to think "Interesting… Snotlout then?"

He could see her giving that guess a thought, before responding "I wouldn't exactly blame him for this one. More like he's the one who broke through those walls, but he wasn't necessarily the one who LAUNCHED himself through a wall on purpose"

She almost giggled at the look that he gave her. The sort of look that can only be interpreted as a question of "What?". She chuckled at him for a bit before realizing something "Wait, your braids are loose… let me get that fixed up as well"

Hiccup really was lost. What could possibly have the strength to not only launch Snotlout, have him smash through not only one, but TWO walls, without causing any kind of destructive side effects.

During his train of thoughts, he took a peek at his girlfriend who was too fixated on re-braiding the small braids that he has on the back of his head that he almost forgot to ask to re-braid due to it slowly getting loose.

But he then noticed some small bruises near the knuckle area of her milky white hand, almost as if… it just came to contact on something that was quite sturdy and resistant.

A piece of _bone_ maybe.

He then turns his vision around to the gleaming object that is currently leaning towards the log that they are right across of.

With meticulous observation, he was able to identify a few dent marks on the face of the axe.

Pretty large dents as well that is.

He also made note to himself that he would get that axe repaired and have it restored to the state of when he first gave it to her.

But never mind that, he had an analysis to conjure.

The bruises on the knuckles, the dents on the face of axe instead of chipping on the sharper edges, indicating that something had been hit by the side of that axe.

Something or some _one_ that is.

Putting two and two together, he got a bit of a conclusion.

His girlfriend's strength, especially added with rage, put together with the sturdiness and power of that axe.

Should be more than enough to launch someone through three sets of walls if she had wanted it.

He smirked after finally concluding it all, before resorting to a frown as he couldn't help but wonder what might've pushed her to do such actions.

Like, he knows Snotlout is irritating, but not that irritating until you would want to throw him through several sets of walls while smashing him with an extremely sturdy axe.

Now that he had summed it up, he could really see the merit on her judgement.

He took a deep breath before clearing his throat, catching the attention of her girlfriend who is still attending to his braids.

"Say Astrid, you axe seems a little bit… unpolished? You hit anything too hard recently?" he says while indirectly asking her of what kind of actions she might've done.

She took a quick look at her axe, but instantly averted her eyes back down. As if she was avoiding to actually make out a clear inspection of said axe "Seems all the way fine to me. Why ask?"

Hiccup then held her hand in order to gain capture her full attention. Which he recognized that he did when she instantly looked straight to his eyes.

"Milady, I would have you know that as the forger and caretaker of said axe, it is definitely far from its peak condition, which I usually maintain to keep it that way. Especially if it's for your own uses. Now, did you hit anything hard enough to cause such dents, or would you rather have me ask on whether or not you hit any _one_ … with the axe?"

Astrid can only sigh, with her eyes practically shouting out an apology, but she can only manage to ask "It's that obvious isn't it?"

She can only close her eyes, expecting him to scowl at her and start nagging at her. Lecturing her on her fiery behavior. Any one of those.

But all she felt was his soft hands, caressing her cheeks with all the affection he could muster. She opens her eyes only to have it meet with his soft and understanding eyes, alongside his all so sweet smile.

"You know… with that kind of dent in your axe, I don't have a single clue on what could possibly be able to drive you to hit him THAT hard." He said softly.

She can feel it. The burning sensation in the back of her eyes, threatening to open the gates of her tear ducts and emptying the content as she recalls the words that those people have mentioned during their little skirmish.

Especially that ONE word.

One too painful for her to ever mention again to her future husband.

"I-It was just too much…" she managed to choke out.

Hiccup raised an eyebrow "What was too much? Astrid you can tell me anything that you have on your mind now"

Astrid drew in shaky breaths, before slowly speaking out "The things… the things… that they said about…" her voice started shaking even more, she could barely handle recalling the words, let alone restate it.

"About what milady?" He slowly asked as he went up to a sitting position, now that the pain on his neck has rather subsided.

She couldn't take it anymore.

"ALL THE THINGS THEY SAID ABOUT YOU HICCUP! ALL THE HORRIBLE THINGS THEY DID TO GET RID OF YOU! ALL OF THAT!" she shouted as she suddenly stood up, not only causing Hiccup to flinch but also for Toothless and Stormfly to be jerked awake from their slumber, thinking that someone had assaulted them, only to find that the coast is clear, while seeing that he rider had walked over to face the horizon.

The only thing unclear to Hiccup is the reason to her sudden out pouring.

"W-what do you mean? Things they said about me? "he asked while slowly standing up to inch closer to her.

She was visibly shaking, as if struggling to cope with remembering.

"The venom in their voice, all those insults… I can't help but think back to when I regretfully neglected you. When I ignored you. Where I acted like I didn't care, ALL because I wanted to be respected. I wanted to be recognized as warrior, when I'm completely ignoring the one person who truly deserves the respect and recognition that I was hoping for" she poured out with a sad tone. A tone that's slowly breaking Hiccup's heart apart.

"That person is you Hiccup! Everyone is so blinded with their own perception of you, they failed to see the side that changed the world. Not until a grave cost must be paid…" she could see Hiccup shift his left leg as in remembrance of what he had to sacrifice to bring such a change. A sacrifice he still thinks is worth it for the change.

"They called you Useless Hiccup! Snotlout called you Useless once again! The person that brought the most change to Berk in over 300 years old is called Useless!? The one person that helped me see the beauty of dragons, the one person that brought the light to my everyday, the one who I chose to live out the rest of my life with. How is he ANYWHERE near deserving of being called Useless!?"

At this point, she could barely look at him.

"And to think that I wasn't there to fight for you. To support you. To think that I once again, let them ridicule you and trample over you…"

She didn't know what else to say.

"I just lost it Hiccup"

She held back her tears, not wanting to let out any more of an emotion that she's already shown.

She had her defenses tight.

That is, until she felt his hands on her shoulders.

Slowly pulling her in.

Letting her head to rest on his shoulder.

Stroking her blonde hair in the back of the evening sunlight.

Breaking through her defenses bit by bit.

She was holding on, until he said softly "Hey Astrid"

She managed to choke out a small "Yes?"

He held her closer

"It's okay you know… you have nothing to apologize for"

That did it.

She hugged him back as hard as she could, crying on his shoulder then and there. Tears that she's been holding over the last number of hours, all come pouring down through opening floodgates.

"I'm sorry..." she said in between her sobs, burying herself deeper into his shoulder "I'm so sorry Hiccup"

He held her closer, tucking her head under his chin, continuously stroking her hair while giving it small pecks every now and then.

"You've got nothing to apologize for milady" he said full of understanding.

Her sobs slowly went down in volume "I don't deserve you…"

"Hey, hey" he lifted her chin up so that he could look directly in her eyes "If anything milady, I don't deserve to be gifted by your unwavering compassion, your beauty, your care, and most of all, your devotion in being the one whom I've chosen to spend the rest of my life with"

She smiles at his statement, with him once again giving her one of this most loving stares.

"So if you still would, have this scrawny one legged Viking as your one and only?"

She circles her hand around his neck.

"If you accept this hot tempered thunderstorm then by all means, yes"

He smiled and replied "A storm that I'm willing to find light from every single time…"

They pulled closer to each other.

Until their lips meet and provide them with a sudden burst of sensation.

One that they could describe as, _bliss_.

Time seems to tick slowly around them as the two were locked on to each other's lips.

In reality, it only lasted for a less than ten seconds but hey. Young love flourishes in any time it has.

Especially when it comes to these two.

They both gasped for air after finally letting go, then leaned their foreheads together, while recollecting their selves.

"Seems like you still haven't lost it" Astrid finally said after a few moments of silence.

Hiccup raised an eyebrow "What? My refined arts of lip-locking?"

She chuckled 'Well _that_ and your sensitive side, thought that a few days of isolation would dull it out"

He smirked in a rather suspicious manner "I guess that's what makes me such a good boyfriend. Am I right?"

Astrid could practically feel the giggling sensation that he has inside of himself "Hahaha, very funny" she laughed sarcastically "I let myself in to that one didn't I?"

Hiccup burst out laughing, with her slowly chuckling and following suite just moments after "Not only that but you've let yourself in on a whole lot more…" he said teasingly.

She went up to his face as if to impose a challenge "Oh really now? Then I suppose that you wouldn't mind guiding me through all that bit of more?"

He chuckled and was leaning in for another kiss before a huge spray of water hits him from the side of his head. He quickly turned towards the source of the water spray, only to see his dragon with his gummy smile.

"Toothless!? You wanna get a go at it bud? Alright then, you asked for it!" he quickly bounced over and tried to catch his dragon as they got involved in a momentary game of tag.

Astrid only watches with a grin on her face before a fish was thrown directly of her head. She looked towards the source only to find that her dragon seemed to want the same attention that her friend was having.

"You too Stormfly? Wait until I get my hands on you!"

Roars and laughter could be heard throughout the evening as the voices of the pair of dragons and the couple can be heard throughout the island's forestry, up until nighttime has arrived.

A campfire was built, and the dragons are circling their riders in views of caring, protection, and providing them with comfort, as they leaned on them with the moon ascending to its peak.

There they were, together within the arms of each other.

Hiccup can only think to himself on how lucky he is to not only be close to the girl of his dreams.

But to actually be betrothed with each other!? Not in his lifetime did he dare to think of that possibility.

Apparently his contemplation not only occupies his mind, but also the expressions of his face. He didn't notice this before he felt her hands on his chin and directed his face towards hers, which was etched in views of concern.

"Hey, what's with the hard face?" she quipped with a hint of worry.

His emerald orbs met with her sapphire ones. _'Here she is again'_ he thought to himself _'Caring for me. Even though she's been through probably more than me, in the past couple of days. But none of that wavers her passion of caring for people'_

She softened a small bit when she saw him to relax even more, then he smiled and stared at the sky with a tingle in his eyes that she just couldn't comprehend.

"I'm just thinking of how lucky I am. That I was gifted with a Valkyrie worthy of Valhalla itself" he said casually, trying to play the cool boyfriend in such a dramatic that he's quite close to butchering it up at that point.

She grinned mischievously, taking up his challenge "Hmm… I wonder who might it be? Those kind of woman should be rare to find, especially in these parts of the land"

He laughed, acknowledging the fact that she has noticed his challenge, but he has the killing move already prepared from the moment he spoke up.

"True as it could it be, but this particular one is so grand and exquisite, it made the thousand-year long journey of hardship and persistence, seemingly a bargain compared to the gift that was awarded in the end"

' _Wow'_ was the only thing she could think of _'That was a fine piece of smooth talking if I've ever heard of one'_ she giggled gleefully at her boyfriend's artistic choice of words, admitting her defeat in the process "Okay okay… you win the round this time Mr. I'm So Poetically Sensitive. I'm not the one who's a particular expert on choosing the words to say"

He chuckled and pulled her closer to her "But at least you like both sides of that nickname that you oh-so-creatively put together on the spot?"

She snuggled closer to him, yearning for the warmth that he always provided within the times of need "Hmm… the poetry could do some more polishing, but at least you have a grasp of what I think of your sensitive side"

He was instantly reminded of the conversation they had, moments before she took off for Berk "Seems a little of bit of a déjà vu wouldn't you say?"

Now THAT didn't make any sense to her "What in Thor's name is a déjà vu? You may be poetic but doesn't give you the right to just make up words you know" she said with a laugh in the end.

Her boyfriend softly laughs as he began explaining "As much as I would like to be the maker of words, I'm afraid to say that I have made up nothing milady. Déjà vu is a term the French made, that I picked up from a book on The Siege of Paris. Apparently, it means to describe the occurrence of something familiar, and the ability of being able to recognize it. Even its literal translation turned it into "already seen" in English"

Astrid can only hum in understanding, before realizing that by "familiar" he was referring to their conversations on the launch pad. She leaned her head on his shoulder, while holding his hand in reassurance "But this time, I won't be going anywhere. I'll be right here where you need me"

She felt his hand squeezed hers for a bit before he says "And I'll always be right here. Ready to be your support. To be that shoulder for you to lean on. Both figuratively and literally" he ended with a grin as he felt her smile.

"That one was actually good for once. Nice to see that you've learned one or two things from me" she also ended with a grin as he smiled.

"Indeed I did" he said shortly before giving a her a small peck on her hair.

They stayed together in comfortable silence for quite a bit, before Astrid remembered her initial goal of setting out to find him.

"Say Hiccup, this might be a little bit too early to ask, but talking about going anywhere kind of brought me back to my initial intentions…" she began, slightly hesitating on whether or not she should inquire him of his opinions on the matter.

"Which is…? Hiccup asked as he was intrigued by the suspense.

He felt her take a deep breath "I'm just wondering, on whether or not you'd like to return to the Edge anytime soon?"

"The Edge huh?" he actually just remembered the fact that he had island that he was obliged to lead on, even when he gave away leadership days ago, of course he had every intention of going back. Now thinking of how he would patch up matters there, he decided to give that particular matter a rest for now.

"I'd prefer that we give them time, to sort their selves out that is. Then from there on, we can determine the course of action that we'd take to provide some restoration to the island" he explained "But until then… I'd say that we spend a day or two more on this island to let them have their thoughts to their own"

She hummed in agreement and also a bit of relief, as she thought that he wasn't quite in the correct timing to be brought back to the currently uncomfortable topic. That is, before she had an idea of the reason behind his suggestion.

"You just want some more alone time for us in this island don't you?"

She knew that she hit jackpot as he blushed and turned the color of his face into a matching one with his tunic.

He nervously rubs the back of his neck "W-Well… there are always some pros and cons to decisions that are uhh… being made in this world… but if you want to head back-"

He was cut off by her laughter who afterwards exclaimed "I'm just kidding! Besides, a couple of more days in this island wouldn't be such a bad way to release the pressures of the previous days" she said "Especially, with you…" she added in the end.

Even though feeling a bit embarrassed, Hiccup still had the oomph to declare their final plan "Alright then, let's give it two days. Then we'll return back to the Edge. Deal?"

She nodded in agreement "Deal. Plus, you can go back there without having to worry about Snotlout and the twins ever questioning your leadership anymore"

Hiccup raised an eyebrow "And how are you so sure of that if I may ask?"

Astrid replied with the utmost confidence "Because now you'll have me by your side"

They held each other closer for a bit, before Hiccup questioned once again.

"Not because of the fact that there are gaping holes on the side of the Clubhouse and on the side of a certain someone's hut?"

Astrid can only laugh at his quip.

"Oh and that too. I don't think anyone would be going near my axe anytime soon"

They both shared a laugh before leaning to each other for warmth, and draping their selves in their blanket as sleepiness eventually caught up.

Sending them to the realms of peaceful dreams, under the starry skies.

* * *

 **Aaahhh, young loveee.**

 **They do grow up so fast...**

 **Now I'm sorry to say this but this story, or any story that I had plans on writing on even would probably encounter a little bit of delay in publishing in the future. Due to me having band practices and worst of all, midterms are coming up. So I gotta jog up ma memory before failing each and every one of the tests xD**

 **But I promise you all, as soon as the space is available I'll give a straight run in effort for a good next chapter :)**

 **Hope you all enjoyed!**

 **-Blind**


	5. Control Point

**HEELLOOOO PEEPS! I HAVE RETURNED!**

 **I would like to first and foremost apologise for the delay in publishing this chapter! Exams and tasks finally caught on to me and hit me straight up me arse xD But one big announcement that I'm making, which you might've noticed from the title.**

 **Yes, I decided that this fic would be the startup to my Whoniverse HTTYD crossover series. More info on the crossover in my profile! It's highly important that you check my profile out if you are interested in still reading this Whoniverse AU! I hope you all are willing to follow through with the changes of future storyline that I'm about to present to you right now, but I would also understand it if crossovers aren't actually your thing! We all have our preferences :)**

 **So without further a dooo, I present to you... In Days Like This CHAPTER FIVEEEEE!**

 **ENJOY!**

* * *

 _Two Days later…_

It's finally time.

Here they are on the shores of Crescent Island, ready to depart on a normal flight back to The Edge.

Well they say "normal" but really, the internal turmoil that Hiccup had to overcome was quite a bit more than what he would've preferred.

He didn't get the best of sleeps the night before, that's for sure. Evident by the heavy bags that he's trying to constantly get rid of.

Of course, such thing wouldn't go amiss by Astrid, who asked him again for what could be the tenth time that day, according to Hiccup that is.

"Hiccup are you sure about this?"

He heaves a heavy breath in expression of his tiredness, but masks if off "Yes I'm sure Astrid… sooner or later, I'd probably have to deal with it. It's best if I deal with it in a condition that I'm able to accept, rather than have it just sort of… jump on me"

Astrid can only nod in understanding, knowing fully well that Hiccup would have a rather difficult time in the next twenty-four hours.

Soon after, they were off the ground and were feeling the wind caressing their faces in no time. Just the two of them. One returning as a hopeful leader, and the other being the other's faithful second-in command.

Sometimes, he wished time would just stay like this.

Just him, her, and the dragons gliding peacefully through the bright blue sky.

He knew that he had to be in Valhalla to achieve those circumstances, and he knew that the world wouldn't be so remorseful towards the people living in it.

"Have something in mind?"

He opened his eyes as he heard the angelic voice, breaking him out of his trance whilst making him turn to his left, where she has been paying attention to his brief moments of daydreaming.

He lets out a small chuckle "Nothing much, just sort of wishing that time could stay this… peaceful"

That made Astrid raise an eyebrow "This peaceful? Seems a bit too slow for my liking" she said, smirking in the end.

Hiccup looked at her with intrigue "Do I hear a challenge there milady?"

"Did you then?" she asked back rhetorically "Well here I thought you weren't going to ask. LET'S GO GIRL!"

And within an instant, Hiccup was only left staring at the blast of wind that Stormfly left, grinning mischievously and proceeded to blast off with a cunning plan within his mind.

Meanwhile up front, Astrid was enjoying the speed that Stormfly had procured. Something that the two of them have been practicing in recent times, both as to be faster in the battlefield, but to also be able to race a bit more toe to toe with that super speed of a Night Fury her boyfriend has. After all, they always make a race out of everything.

Wondering how his "opponent" is doing, she took a peek behind her, only to find out that nothing has been trying to catch up with here.

She scanned behind her one more time, before turning forward to urge Stormfly to slow down a bit, only to notice that there was something that was shielding her from the sunshine above. She looked, only to come face to face with a grinning Night Fury, who was flying upside down.

Her question is only, where the Hel is the rider?

Just as she finished thinking about that question, she saw a red figure blurs past the corner of her eyes. She looked up to see a combination of her worst horrors and… well… her other worst horrors.

There Hiccup was, gliding through the sky with what she thinks is a newly modified version of the Dragonfly Two, and he was gliding backwards no less.

Hiccup.

Gliding without actual safety.

Backwards.

Was he trying to give her a heart attack?

Hiccup took note of the surprised look on her face, and casually says "Afternoon Milady. Nice day we have here yes?"

Astrid was quite amused to say the least, but she still worries for his safety "Hiccup, what in the name of all that is holy in Odin's world, are you trying to do? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Hiccup contemplated on an answer while humming casually "Hmmm… more like I'm flying without a dragon, but I'm still using a Dragonfly"

"I can see that, as much as I totally disagree with everything that I'm witnessing" Astrid scoffs.

"Aww come on Astrid… It doesn't look THAT bad! I can easily control this thing now. No more weird experiments in the future!" Hiccup tried to persuade her to liking the Dragonfly, but Astrid was having none of it. Plus with a certain statement she made quite a while ago, she can throw Hiccup in for quite a loop here.

"Haha yeah, no Hiccup. Remember what I said about what would happen if you ever mention Dragonfly Two, Three, or no matter how many you decided to make?"

"Uuuuh" Hiccup then realized the consequences that this action would bring to him "You will… uh… lock me up?"

Astrid smirked with a sly look in her eyes "And did I ever mention any changes to those requirements?"

Now Hiccup realized that he needs to make a break for it. They were quite near the clouds, so he decided to use that as an escape route.

Taking one look at Astrid, who looked deadest in locking him up for real. He shouted "Toothless!" and dove straight for the clouds below.

Astrid was caught off guard, and when the black dragon that was flying above her zooms past her, she quickly made a break as well and chased the pair down under the cloud.

While she was whizzing past the clouds, she could barely see a thing. But nothing made her blood curl even more than the panicked screaming of one auburn haired idiot.

"OH GODS, TOOTHLESS!"

She instantly dove even faster, clearing the clouds and witnessing the reason of why he had screamed as a decently sized trapper ship suddenly appeared out of nowhere "WHOAH!" She jerked Stormfly up as fast as she could to get her to a complete stop.

Now having a clear view on the ship, she realized that Toothless is standing on one the deck of the ship with Hiccup just getting back up, presumably after a having a not-so-smooth landing on the ship.

The two closed in on the ship's deck and made a safe landing. Astrid hopped of her dragon and went towards Hiccup, who was busy observing his surrounding, seemingly unhurt from his fall.

"You alright?" she asked him anyways, to which he only gave a slight nod.

"Outside yeaah, but inside… not too sure" he answered back rather hesitantly.

That got her confused. She checked around to see anything familiar that might bring an uneasy feeling for him, only to find nothing.

"I don't see anything that's outside the obvious… other than the deserted ship that is" she said, half asking for his clarification.

He sighed and looked around rather slowly "Didn't expect you to know anything about this anyways. You weren't here to be precise…"

She was now even more confused "What do you mean Hiccup?"

Hiccup turned his body towards her, but still looking rather vacantly towards other spots of the ship.

"This was the hunter's ship that we didn't manage to completely bomb out in the previous day's fiasco"

Right after he finished that sentence, Astrid felt a sudden surge of shock from the back of her neck, causing her to grunt and stumble back while clutching the pained side of her neck.

"Astrid!" Hiccup jolted forward, thinking she might fall from her sudden imbalance. But she managed to get a hold of herself and knelt down on the deck, as if she was trying to hold in a massive amount of pain.

Hiccup's worrywart behavior caused him to go to overdrive. Not many things can make a Hofferson to kneel down in pain, especially THIS particular one.

"A-Astrid? Are you-GAH!" he was caught off guard as she went from her kneeling form, straight into her warrior in battle form.

She was breathing rather heavily, but what scared Hiccup the most was the sharp glare that she had on her eyes, similar to how Snotlout's demeaning look was when he "protested".

He watched as she slowly stood up, observed her surroundings and started speaking in a tone that slowly seared his heart bit by bit.

"You call this a broken ship? You barely made any considerable damage to it" she said in a rather cold manner. Before he could respond to her cold tone, she made a question that brought back all the pain that he's been trying to endure in the past days.

"What kind of leader would come with a plan so… _horrendous_?"

To say that Hiccup was taken aback was an understatement, he was stunned beyond dimensions. He had no idea what was causing her to suddenly change her attitude, and her opinions on him.

"Astrid…" he began, gulping down the wallowing sadness that's starting to consume him "This… is not you… whatever you think that you're trying to put out right now, snap…OUT of it…"

His efforts looked futile though, as he was suddenly faced with an axe head being positioned right at the tip of his nose, causing him to raise his hand in surrender.

"Quite the contrary O' great leader" speaking the last two words with obvious sarcasm "I feel quite fine and since when are you to be the judge of me?" she spoke with vicious venom, while slowly advancing with a threatening manner.

He backed slowly, only to have his dragon stepping in front of him and growls at the advancing warrior.

"Huh, cowering behind your Night Fury as always… what a "brave" leader you are" she stated emotionlessly.

Hiccup was getting frustrated. He knew deep inside that something had snapped. This is not the Astrid that is usually the warm spirit she is. This Astrid is rather… dark. He observed her features, cocky posture, demeaning words, insulting body language, and most obviously her usually bright sapphire eyes, have turned into a dark midnight shade with hints of onyx within it.

' _And this dark aura… what the Hel happened in just a split second?'_

He decided to test out a theory, seeing as how Toothless reacted to her sudden change, then in all logic…

"Stormfly!" he shouted, causing the Nadder who was standing rather distant from the three of them to squawk in acknowledgement. Seeing as he has her attention, he gestured for the Nadder to come towards them, whilst maintaining eye contact with Astrid who was kept in place by Toothless.

' _If what I analyze is correct, then Stormfly should…'_ he watched intently as Stormfly decided to fly towards them, going over the head of her rider, and nestling herself on the beam behind him and Toothless.

"I don't see why gathering the only dragons in this boat would do you any good in this point" her usually soft voice now turns to the type of voice she would usually use on him, every time he messed up in the Kill Ring, or even anytime when he was ridiculed.

He did have an answer to her thoughts "Why you ask? It's simple really, Toothless immediately reacted when you started going all weird on us. The final indicator is when I asked Stormfly to come over." He said as he gestured towards the Nadder.

Astrid scoffs and crossed her arms in a judgmental stance "Really? And what is it that she can indicate to you?"

He gestured at the space that Stormfly was before he told her to come over "In any normal time, which I would know the most as I spend more time with you more than I do with anyone else" he was about to continue, before he was nudged on his shoulder by a seemingly annoyed Toothless, who had a questioning gaze, which Hiccup quickly caught on.

"Alright" he managed to chuckle, despite the situation in hand "I spend more time with you than anyone else, except Toothless." He took a quickly at said dragon, who gave him a huff in satisfaction "But that's beside the point. What I'm trying to say is, Stormfly would've happily walked up to me in any given time, especially if she can share a quick nudge with you on the way! But as you see this time…" he looked towards the Nadder, who looked disgruntled, knowing that deep down, _she_ knew that her rider is not the same person she usually is at the current time.

"This time Astrid…" he paused, giving time for her to analyze what has just occurred "This time, she FLEW past you! She avoided you! Astrid, in all the past three years since you've been with her, she never, and I say this literally, NEVER ever tried to purposely avoid you, out of all the people she could avoid!"

' _It's the small things he notices'_ a sudden thought flew over Astrid's head. This prompts her inner self to reconvene, now starting to get a grip of what's actually happening.

' _What am I doing?'_ she tried moving her hands to her will, but to no avail. She couldn't say anything, she couldn't do anything, it is as if someone else have taken over her physical stature, and some of her psychological pieces as well.

There is only one thing that is going through her mind right now, and she was sure as Hel that it wasn't her thought. Only a lone voice that's saying the same words, over and over again.

Hurt Him.

' _Hurt who? Wait, why am I even asking this I don't want to hurt him!'_

' _YES YOU WILL'_

She felt another sharp sting on the back of her neck, her hand immediately shooting up to try and withstand the pain.

This prompted Hiccup to realize that whatever is causing her all those pain is coming from behind her neck. He was starting to gather up a plan before looking up to see that she was preparing for a charge with her axe.

"Uuuh… whatever you're about to do Astrid… I suggest you stop it right now"

She only breathes heavily and started softly chanting.

"Must hurt him…M-Must… hurt…him"

Hiccup was trying hard to listen "Must… hurt who to be exact?"

A final release of her sharp breath was heard before she shouted.

"Must. Hurt. YOU!"

And with that, her trademark Viking war cry was sounded, and she came charging down at him at lightning speed only to be blocked by the offspring of lightning himself.

Toothless growled threateningly, only to be left dazed as the misguided warrior lands a swift kick at the side of his head, effectively leaving him on the side.

Well it's not like he was expecting to be kicked by such a force anyways, anyone would've backed off when a dragon of his kind just growls at them.

But nothing's stopping this maniacal spirit to reach its target, Toothless had to quickly remind himself to not do any substantial damage to the person who currently has an axe swung directly to his rider's head, as he knew that this is not really her, but firing at her would do the same damage to the actual person.

Hiccup on the other hand, had no time to consider any of that. He quickly grabbed Inferno and lighted it up as he parried the incoming blow just in time, before it slices his head open in two.

His main priority is to get a look at the back of her neck, he needed to find a way to take off whatever it is that's causing her pain.

"Stormfly!" he called at the dragon that is hovering above the two of them, she looked down in acknowledgement.

Hiccup timed his push carefully, before forcing his weapon off of hers and shouting "Catch!"

Astrid had no time to react as she was taken to a sudden flight in the claws of the Nadder, which didn't last long as she managed to cause an imbalance on the dragon's leg and steer her into the sails of the broken ship. Blocking her vision, hence dropping Astrid to the ground.

Right as she landed, she was tackled down by Hiccup, who tried so desperately to turn her to her back, only to be stunned when he saw the cause of Astrid's behavior.

' _A Grimora!? But it's all black and purplish instead of its-'_ he didn't get to finish his thoughts as he was thrown directly towards Toothless who just managed to get his senses back, only to lose it once again as Hiccup crashed on him.

As he tried to get back up, he watched slowly as Astrid was getting back up to her feet. He quickly came up with a thought.

"Grimora's normally infect dragons… so why does this one go after humans? Never mind that, we have to get it off of her, quickly!"

With experiences on dealing with Grimoras. He quickly searched around for a way to get some salt water of her, but instantly excluded dumping her into the ocean as trying to get close to her seems to be such an improbable task considering her current rampant state.

"Toothless! Stormfly! Distract her as much as you both can, I'll try to find some way to get her back!" the two dragons roared in response and began firing covering shots towards the rampaging Astrid.

He knew that he didn't have long before the two of them reach their firing limits, so he observed the deck for anything of use. _'Where's a plain old bucket when you need one!?'_

That's when he felt something dripping on his head, he looked up to see that the other sail that was still standing was soaking wet. He held his hand up and hoped to Odin that it is what he hoped it is. After catching a drop, he licked it.

Salt! He nearly exclaimed out loud, not wanting to alert his target of his advantage. Now, he has to lead her a position where the drops of water from the sail would hit her completely.

After analyzing his surrounding, he immediately ran towards the opposing side of the mast, putting himself directly across Astrid.

"Toothless! Get ready to fire bud" pointing at the top of the mast with his unlit Inferno, this caught both Toothless's and Astrid's attention.

Astrid wasted no time. She quickly charged towards him, recognizing that he was about to throw his Inferno straight at her, at least… that's what her insanity mode is thinking.

To her surprise, both her mad state ad her consciousness inside of her, Hiccup completely misses and ended up lodging his sword to the main pole of the past. Causing her to laugh and sneered "You missed!"

She didn't expect Hiccup to smirk and say rather victoriously "Made you look though"

Before she knew it, a loud "NOW!" was heard from the auburn boy prompting Toothless to fire to the top of the mast, causing it to vibrate roughly and released the sprays of water that was on the sail, drenching her with salt water.

The stinging pain returned momentarily as the Grimora release its grip. She yelped in pain as it tried to fly away, only to be trapped into a sack by Hiccup, and was tied in there.

Hiccup immediately turned his attention towards her as she half sitting up on the floor while clutching her head, he noticed a small black circle at the back of her neck before getting close to her "H-Hey Astrid?"

He reached for her hand, only to have her react violently.

"GAH! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" she thrashed around, before he grabbed a hold of both of her hand and tries calming her down.

"Hey hey! It's me! Hey It's just me Astrid, calm down!" he called out.

Astrid's eyes snapped open and he was relieved to see that it has returned to the sapphire color that he's known and love "H-Hiccup?"

He smiled down on her "The one and only…"

She was still breathing rather heavily, this time not from rage, but from exhaustion "Hiccup… T-that was horrible… I don't know what the Hel happened to me! I can see you and feel my own consciousness and everything, but I couldn't control my body at all, as if it has a mind of its own! And all I can hear is this… voice… over and over again!"

Hiccup was perplexed, she was hearing stuff as well? "Well did that voice said anything in particular?"

She looked at him dead in the eyes.

"It was telling me to hurt YOU. Badly that is"

Well that's an obvious point.

Astrid watches as his face turns serious, and with a stern look he says with conviction.

"We need to get to the Edge as fast as we can"

Twelve Hours Later…

Back on the Edge.

Snotlout was having the weirdest of times.

First off, he woke up rather late this morning with a big stinging sensation on his neck. Not only that, he was soaking wet and was also NOT in his bed, but rather near their docks right by a basket of fishes. Not to mention that no one even bothered to wake him up, which offended him quite a bit.

Second of all, he was questioning on how he managed to go from being in the middle of a battle, to suddenly lie awake soaking wet in the peaceful mornings in the Edge with a rather medium sized lump on one side of his head, while being pummeled by headaches in the inside. He reeked of salt too which disgusted him to bits.

The weirdness didn't end there for Snotlout, when walking around the Edge, he was greeted by the twins as their "leader"

As much as he wanted too, he had let go of that particularly selfish want of him for quite a while ago and took their weird salutations in a confused fashion and just wave them off.

He tried looking for Hiccup, but that one-legged Viking is nowhere to be seen. He wasn't all that surprise to find that Astrid is nowhere to be seen as well.

' _Must've gone for a lovey dovey trip again those two… "trying to find that sassy plant thingy" my ass'_

He then approached the stables, initially intending to find Hookfang, only to be greeted by the sight of Fishlegs and Heather both cleaning up the stables. Quite a rare sight that is.

"Uuuh guys…" he started, before hearing the two of them sighs and chant out in a rather lazy unison

"Yes O' mighty Snotlout?"

Okay now this is starting to get weird in Snotlout's mind.

"Haha Okay, very funny. Did Hiccup put you guys to stable cleaning duties because of that attitude?"

He was even more confused as the pair only looked towards each other and Heather said "No he didn't. YOU did"

"Besides" Fishlegs continued "Didn't a certain Jorgenson kicked him out for being an "incompetent" leader.

Snotlout was bewildered "What my dad? What is he doing around here, and did you say that he kicked Hiccup out for being a bad leader? Why'd you guys let him!?"

Heather rolled her eyes "Please Snotlout don't play dumb on us. Your dumb as it is, no need to further play it forward"

Even though the offensive comment was made, he decided to press on "But seriously! I don't know any of these things that you guys are telling me right now!"

Fishlegs and Heather both exclaimed in exasperation "It was YOU! You kicked him out of here!"

"What?" he was frozen on the spot, refusing to believe that he did such a thing "No way I would do something like that! Where's Hiccup let me get a word-"

As if on cue, come bounding in through the stables gates is the auburn haired boy with his faithful Night Fury, both looking deeply concerned.

Before Fishlegs and Heather could process what just occurred. Snotlout knew that the clarity he was seeking for is finally going to be answered as he walked over to that cousin of his.

"Hiccup! Man you are a sight for sore eyes. Can you please explain to me about what in Thor's name is going ON around-" he made a short shriek as an axe blade was shoved directly on his throat, as he came face to face with a very irritated Astrid Hofferson.

"H-hi Astrid… Almost didn't see you there, can you please lower your axe down so I can at least come back in one piece" he half pleaded.

Astrid made a rather shrill statement "Look Snotlout, I may have gone soft on you guys the last time we talked around. But I swear to Odin, if you guys are planning to pull the same stunts that you did last time around, I wouldn't hesitate to throw you all off the edges OF the Edge"

Snotlout has had enough of this weirdness "Okay that's it. WHAT IN ODIN'S BEARD is happening around here!? First I got called a leader, then they all said that I kicked YOU out of the group for being an "incompetent leader", and how did ALL of that happen without me hearing a single word about it!?"

"Wait" Hiccup cuts in "So you don't remember anything that happened in the previous days?"

The Jorgenson only shrugged "Nope, not anything that you all mentioned. Well, maybe except for this feeling where I was flying through something. That was unpleasant"

Hiccup continued to press on "You don't remember taking over leadership of the Edge?

"Nope, why would I take your leadership away from you anyway, too lazy to think about anything like that"

Astrid decided to jog his memory "You don't remember the cause of the gaping holes in the Clubhouse and your own hut?"

"Not a single thing, but I would make an assumption that it has something to do with me"

Hiccup pinched the bridge of his nose "What was the last thing you remembered then? "

Snotlout thought for a bit before answering "The battle we had with the hunter ships, I was about to drop the bomb and then… nothing"

Hiccup then had a theory occurring in his mind, but saved it for later as Heather decided to speak up.

Heather then began "Now here's the thing" she began "You missed out on a lot of stuff that happened right after" she then proceeded to tell him everything from top to bottom, bringing Snotlout to both a grimace and a cringing expression as she basically told him the worst story of his lifetime.

And within less than five minutes.

We have a wailing Snotlout, an extremely drenched peg leg as he held on to Hiccup's leg, practically begging for his cousin to forgive him.

"Hiccup I'm so **sobs** sorry! I didn't mean any of that I swear to Thor I didn't know that I said any of that!"

Hiccup was confused between being sort of grateful or being disgusted as his cousin blew out his snots on his pants. He tried to get him off of him "Y-yeah Snotlout its okay really… Now i-if you could just get off"

Snotlout though, remained resilient on not letting go "Say that you forgive me first!"

"What?" Hiccup asked, before being more disgusted as he wiped his snot on his pants once again "OKAY okay! I forgive you! What's so important about me having to say it anyways?"

Snotlout wailed harder "SO THAT ASTRID WON'T KILL ME!"

Said person just crossed her arms "As much as I want to Snotlout, I think that you've created enough humiliation to last you a whole moon cycle. Besides, if anything I guess I could thank you in some way"

This brought Snotlout's wailing to a stop "Wait what, why should you thank me?"

Astrid smirked "Because nothing satisfies me more than getting to beat up both generation of Jorgensen in just a span of one day"

Her statement caused Hiccup to perk up "Wait, both generations? Why'd you have to beat up Spitelout as well?"

She pulled in a sharp breath, forgetting about keeping the whole _ordeal_ a secret between the three of them "Uuuuh, he was just being lewd about something. Nothing out of the usual"

Even though he unconvinced, he decided to let the issue be at the moment "Ookaaayy then, moving on… I think I might know why all of this changes have been happening. Fishlegs!"

Fishlegs was instantly snapped out of the trance that he was trapped in, due to everything that was happening, he couldn't really keep up with all the new revelation "Y-YEAH Hiccup?"

"Grab a small dragon net, like, tiny size dragon net. Heather get some salt, the rest of you get to the Clubhouse and make sure the table's clear" he gave them commands to follow and all of them quickly disperse to do their tasks. Hiccup himself went to Toothless and grabbed the sack that was holding the mysterious Grimora, and brought it over to the Clubhouse.

After everyone gathered up, minus the twins that are somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Hiccup made sure that the net that Fishlegs brought was just the right size to trap the creature.

"Alright gang" he said sternly "This thing may be small in size, but it managed to do considerable damage to me and Astrid. So keep your guards up!"

They all nodded and held their breaths as Hiccup slowly untied the ropes keeping the sack shut, only to see a black blur zoom out and crashed straight to the net, with Fishlegs quickly tying it up to prevent any means of escape.

Seeing that it was safe to close in, the rest of the gang observed the small creature, started with Fishlegs exclaiming "That's a pretty big Grimora… but why is it…"

"Black? Yeah I don't know why either… it sort of looked like it's being possessed as well" Hiccup continued.

They stayed there, watching the creature before Snotlout ran out of patience "Okay Hiccup, this is interesting and all… but I still don't get how this is anywhere near relevant to my situation!"

Hiccup then smirked full of knowledge "Quite the contrary O' mighty Snotlout" that name made Snotlout cover his face in mock up agony, before Hiccup continued "This thing can control people somehow. I got to witness that first hand yesterday, and I'll tell you that it wasn't a sight that I would be trying to remember anytime soon"

"But Hiccup, Grimora's only ever gone for dragons! There's no recorded case in which a Grimora decided to use a human as its host, due to its main source of food primarily being dragon blood" Fishlegs reasoned.

"Yes I know that Fishlegs" Hiccup acknowledges Fishlegs's comment "But what I think is causing the Grimora to act all strange is the black and purplish aura that is encasing it, sort of making it quite twisted"

Snotlout suddenly began to panic, he began looking for the small monster that could be latching somewhere on his body, only to find none "Wait, if what you're trying to say is that THAT thing latched on to me during our battle with the hunters, where is it now?"

Hiccup smiled at his confusion "Simple. You mentioned that you were having such a weird day, did that weird started off with you being anywhere near a source of salt?"

"You don't say, that I was near a source of salt as we are practically living on an island that is surrounded by SEA WATER. In fact, I was heavily drenched in sea water"

Hiccup then stepped forward towards Astrid and Snotlout "You two, get close"

The people in question then shifted towards each rather uncomfortably, before Hiccup went right behind them and held their shoulders together, before letting a loud "A-ha! This shows that the Grimora are still susceptible salt, as they always were"

Heather and Fishlegs went up to check and was perplexed when both Astrid and Snotlout had a ismiliar looking black specs on the back of their neck "Those things must've used you to try and inflict anger to someone else using another person as his/her medium"

"So your telling me…" Snotlout started "Just because Hookfang decided to drop me off in the ocean for a little time, as usual that is. I managed to not only get rid of that Monstrosity but also win the match entirely!? Is that what's happening to the others, namely the twins that is"

"Correcto! Now we only need to get these off the twi-"

Hs sentenced were cut short as if on cue, the twins showed up with a scowl that was plastered on their faces, Tuffnnut realizing the presence of their 'former' leader.

"Hey! What are you doing hanging around!? Vanish! Come back when you finally decided to learn a bit more things about respecting the mighty Snotlout!" he passionately said while marching forward.

Hiccup smiled mischievously, after noticing the Grimora's of them both are perched on the same spot as Astrid and Snotlout's Grimora was earlier. Both of the Grimora's on the other two's head seemed to look like the same ones as the one they captured.

"Gather up gang!" Hiccup shouted

They all huddled up, seemingly aware of what kind of plan will he come up with.

"Let's go dip them into some sea water!"

And with that, they all rushed the twins down and threw them both of the cliff edges, where a loud splash can be heard followed up by a confused yelp of "Where the Hel am I!?" from one of the twins.

Unbeknownst to them though…

A lone figure cladded in black was watching their every single move while they were trying to get the "gang" to make sense again.

' _So it needs better strategizing in use, they will surely all be alerted to what we have'_ the figure thought.

' _Those creatures will be required once again as my mission here isn't done'_ he gave a small Grimora he had in his hand a little kiss before going off while laughing rather… manically.

Hiccup noticed the sudden puff of black smoke that came out of nowhere, but decided to make nothing out of it fearing he would get even more worried than he already is.

After pulling the twins out of the sea, Hiccup took one look at his now once again, reformed group, in which they all replied back with soft and welcoming expressions which Hiccup was extremely grateful for, as it was the signification that tells him that they are willing to once again…

Be lead by him.

He took a deep breath, and opened his eyes to determined ones.

"Gang!" he shouted out, having everyone looking at him with confident eyes.

"It's good to be back…"

* * *

 **This chapter was particularly important for me as it addresses the OOC-ness of Snotlout from the start of this fic! Everyone of you has been pointing it out to me and I do know that canon Snotlout would go no where near mentioning Hiccup in such a manner anymore.**

 **Hmm...**

 **Possessing creatures while turning them to colours of black and purplish...**

 **I wonder what kind of creature have such ability and colours I wonder... (Hint: It's related to flying insects)**

 **More things to find out in the continuation of the story!**

 **-Blind**

 **P.S. Other fandoms that I included in the crossover will not, I repeat, WILL NOT show up in this fic as this only sets the connection between the events that are occurring later on in other stories!**


	6. In Better Days Like This

**HIYA FELLAS!**

 **I AM EXTREMELY SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT.**

 **Now I know that some might be disappointed to have wait in a while, only to be be revealed that this is the final chapter of the story.**

 **BUT, it's not the final chapter of the AU! There's more to come after this story! So please, keep up the incredible support that you guys have been providing me with throughout the entirety of me writing this story!**

 **With that all out of the way...**

 **I present you... the FINAL chapter of In Days Like This!**

 **ENJOY!**

 **P.S**

 **Important author's note in the end, please read! Thanks you very much!**

* * *

Hiccup woke up with a start.

A loud bang had managed to taken him off his slumber.

Instead of being worried, he can only groan in exasperation.

Many would wonder on why didn't he instantly reacted, and why he decided to clasp his pillow around his head in attempts of blocking the noise.

But everyone in The Edge knew that it was just the twins getting up to their own antics again.

Apparently, they once again, managed to encapsulate Snotlout's hut with their Zippleback gas and once again blow the innards of said hut all around. Waking up the owner and severely irritating him. Hiccup could hear the annoyed shouting of his cousin right after that.

"HEY! How many times do I have to tell you guys… I NEED MY BEAUTY SLEEP!" he shouted at to the twins, who were chuckling and crying their eyes out on their dragon.

"B-Beauty sleep? Heh, you'd need to have millions of them to get it to even be slightly right then!" Ruffnut fired back, before laughing her head off while coinciding with her twin.

Snotlout only scowls to no one, while walking back inside his hut mumbling rather furiously "Millions of them you yak asses I'll show you all-" he was cut off with another explosion form inside his hut as a little bit of Zippleback gas just caught up on late fire. Leaving Snotlout to shout out in frustration of his bad morning.

Hiccup can only sigh as he sat up on his bed. Rubbing the sleep in his eyes away while taking a quick look around his hut, half making sure that things were still right where they're supposed to be. He took notice on the fact that Toothless had slept through the whole ordeal, not even bothering to wake up and check on the commotion.

To be honest, anyone who are familiar with the instances around this place would've just went back to sleep.

He would've if he could manage to, but after a rather unpleasant wake up call, his annoyance peaked over his will to sleep. Hence why he decided to get off his bed, fix his hair a bit albeit seldom on doing so, and was heading towards the door when another explosion went off, this time procuring a grunt from the onyx dragon and made him open an eye looking up to his equally annoyed rider.

"I know bud, they are unbearable at times. So why don't we tell them to quite it down a bit?" Hiccup tried to reason his dragon to a peaceful way of dealing with the twins. To which the dragon just huffed and sluggishly went up on his feet to join his rider.

They both exited the hut and was instantly greeted with a pair of people blasting off gasses and fire all over the island.

Hiccup could only shake his head while letting out a low sigh as he went on Toothless and went up to the rampaging twins.

"Umm guys?" he waved at them. Catching their attentions and making them turn their heads towards him "Look is not that I don't appreciate your efforts on getting an early start, but can you guys do something more…productive? Finding breakfast perhaps? Silently that is! Everyone else is still trying to get a wink of sleep around here. Though… I doubt that any of them are anywhere close to getting to bed now"

The twins can only groan in exasperation "Ugghh, really Hiccup?" Ruffnut complained.

"Yeah" Hiccup replied sternly "Seriously. You can either listen to me right now, or there will be two other raging girls that I can set on to you guys"

That made the twins make a questioning look to each other, both realizing the scenarios they might be involved into. Ruffnut sighed in reluctance "Alright we'll stop. But, just remember that it's not because we chose to listen to you!"

Hiccup just pinched his nose with a slight dizziness panging out "Yeah, yeah… whatever. Just go do something that involves no explosions and waking everybody up"

The two huffed, followed by their dragons and flew off to the other side of the island to do gods knows what.

Hiccup sighed tiredly. He knew for a fact that he if decided to go back to his hut, he wouldn't be able to get any sleep done. But on the other hand, he noticed that Toothless was still looking a bit doozy. He decided to give the Night Fury more of his deserved rest.

"Alright bud" he pats the side of his head "Let's get you back to the hut, you look like you'll fall down anytime soon"

Toothless softly crooned in agreement and flew back to their huts in rather fast pace for a tired dragon.

They arrived back, with Hiccup getting off his dragon and also without missing a beat, said dragon instantly drops to the floor and dozes off to the world of dreams.

Watching his mighty dragon instantly dropping like that, he can't help but chuckle and softly says "Sleep well bud" before exiting the hut and decided to just head out to the Clubhouse.

Stretching and yawning as he went out of his hut. He shielded his eyes from the piercing light that is coming from the dawn sun. Taking in the view that the Edge is providing him with.

With the sun bathing the premises of the Edge in a beautiful orange tint. Hiccup always thought that the Edge looked the best during these times. He was still staring towards the horizon when he heard footsteps coming from his left. He turned to the direction to see Heather walking to his direction, carrying the axe he made for Astrid.

"Morning. Twins got you early as well?" he nodded towards her tired eyes.

She yawned and then replied a bit tiredly "Could say the same for you, but seems like I took the brunt of the effects. Could you do me a favor and drop off this axe to Astrid?" she asked while handing the axe over to him.

He quirked his eyebrows "She's not in her hut?" he asked while looking at the hut that Heather was coming from.

"Apparently not" she said "Guess she was actually early, rather than getting an interrupted sleep like us" she ended with another yawn.

Hiccup chuckled "Well then you go get a few more snoozes. I'll get this to her"

Heather nodded while turning back "Alright Hic, tell your girlfriend I said thanks!" she said while giving a small wave and returning back to her hut.

Hiccup smiles and nodded towards her smiling and fading figure. He then took a quick scan of the Edge, trying to give some guess on where she might be on the island.

Well he knew that she would be on the island as she would most likely not leave the island without her axe.

Patrol? Today is the twin's turn. And they were doing a "fine" job on that.

Stables? He takes a quick look at said building and saw that the gates were slightly opened, so he decided to walk over and take a quick peek, only to see that it was only filled with the dragons.

He did notice that Stormfly isn't in her stable.

' _Early flight then?'_ that's what he initially thought before hearing a familiar squawk coming from the Clubhouse.

Meanwhile in said Clubhouse, Astrid was sitting nearby a bucket of fish and was throwing it towards her dragon who gulps the fishes in quick succession.

She smiles at her giddy dragon who was out early for breakfast, before raising her head in acknowledgement and calling out "Morning to you Hiccup!"

The auburn haired young man was a bit surprised that she still managed to identify that it was him, even though he walked as silently as he could. He chuckled and shook his head while walking in towards her.

"How'd you know that it was me?" he asked half rhetorically.

She stood up and turned to him with a sly expression "Well… call it my gut feeling"

He raised a conspicuous eyebrow, before she laughed and placed a hand on her hip "Yeah that was lame, of course I knew it was you. Not many people come up to me with a footstep sounding like metal hitting the wooden floor"

Well he should've known that his metal leg would've given his position away. Especially with Astrid hearing them. She could tell the sound of the leg from a mile away.

"Huh, glad to know that the leg provides some form of identification of myself" he said with a soft grin.

They both shared a quick laugh before Hiccup asks "Any reason for the early start today?"

Astrid nodded towards her dragon "Stormfly was feeling a bit grumpy, turns out she wanted an early breakfast for once, she flew a bit longer yesterday"

Hiccup hums in understanding, but Astrid didn't seem finished.

"What about you? I suppose you didn't bump in to Heather?" she asked while looking at her axe that he's holding, reminding him of why he was looking for her.

"Aaah yeah" he blurted out in realization "Heather dropped it off when I went out. You weren't in your hut and she looked half asleep when she handed it over, due to an unexpected wake-up call that is"

"Huh, so I've heard…" she replied with a knowing look and a slight chuckle "Good thing I was up already. Things would probably end nasty if I'd get that kind of awakening"

Hiccup winced at the thought "Yeaaahh, how'd you think I made them stop in the first place? My reasoning wouldn't do anything to make them even consider stopping" he ended while handing over her axe.

With him stating that, she observed his features. Not many has changed since the whole "Snotlout" fiasco was solved, which was practically a little more than a week ago. Everything went back to normal procedures, unfortunately, that also meant that Hiccup's ability to overwork himself and not get enough rest causing him to look tired routine is back in establishment.

Those abilities that can't stop frustrating Astrid no matter how much she tried to stop it.

She watched on as he sat down with an audible exhale and yawned while stretching out his sore arms.

She knew that she can't help the fact that he would be exhausted, but she would've liked it for him to have more rest and consider his priorities more.

With a sigh, she walked towards him and took a seat. Watching on as he was looking out towards the horizon, with the sun slowly rising and looming over the Edge.

She placed a hand on his shoulder, successfully gaining his attention and softly asks "How're you holding up?"

He turned towards her with a slight hum in questioning, when he realizes the encouraging yet worried expression on her face. One that never fails to bring a small smile out of him.

"A bit tired" he began "But with everything coming back to pieces, guess I can't really complain on how things are building back up"

A hum could be heard from her, before she asks again "Still trying to find out on what happened to those Grimoras?"

There's a visible look of tiredness that came on Hiccup's face for a split second.

"Well, as it turns out, I… kind of quit on trying to figure that one out"

That was unexpected.

He usually figures everything out, how is this any different?

"You… quit?" she asked half disbelieving her own question.

Hiccup sighs rather dejectedly "Yeah… unusual yes? I thought I was heading somewhere with it but it just… changed"

Astrid raised an eyebrow in confusion "Changed? Like form change or?"

He shook his head "Nothing like that, left it for just a couple of hours, came back to Toothless almost thrashing the hut trying to avoid it. It somehow went back to its usual colors and its usual taking over dragon's mind thing"

They both sat in silence. Hiccup just thinking about the oddity of the previous days, while Astrid is just contemplating on how something had managed to make Hiccup feel dumbfounded for once.

"Well then" she started while standing up and using his shoulder as support "How bout you and me do something for a change? We haven't really gotten any time together in the past days"

Hiccup contemplated on the previous days. In which he found a bit of truth to that statement as he was so busy trying to figure out the whole Grimora issue in the past days, he hasn't had the time to be spending it with someone else. Not even her.

"A date then? Doesn't seem like such a bad idea, whatcha got in mind?" he asked casually.

She grinned rather devilishly, and says slowly "Oh I got something in mind alright…"

 _Later that evening…_

"Anyone has any idea where Hiccup is? I was planning to check on that creature again" Fishlegs asks as he enters into the stables where Heather and Snotlout were just cleaning Windshear and Hookfang respectively.

Snotlout just scoffed "Yeah, good luck on getting Hiccup out of his girlfriend's grip. They're probably off in an entirely different island "looking" for another kind of weird oil things"

Heather threw a short glare towards Snoutlout "They were out to the cliffs, Astrid said she wanted to test some things with him"

"Without their dragons?" Fishlegs pointed out to the sleeping Nadder and Night Fury.

All Heather can do is shrug "Guess they want a little bit of an exercise".

Not too far away from the Edge…

"Milady" he calls out in a rather husked tone, clearly out of breath "If this is your idea of a date, then I think I should inform you on some more… "relaxing" alternatives"

There they are, on the edge of the cliff where the Thorston's ownership stone was located, Hiccup looking extremely exhausted on one knee with Astrid observing the axe that she just tested on his Inferno.

Astrid just chuckled "You know… being the future chief of Berk. You really need to work on that ground battle stamina, especially when you have me testing my axes every now and then"

Hiccup was all too busy trying to catch his breath "What's wrong with the one I made you? I thought you liked it?"

She smiled "Best one I've ever gotten, which is why I don't want to constantly use it for every single thing that I happen to be doing that requires an axe. Only for battles and such"

"Then why not just get a random one? Doesn't have to be that good right?" Hiccup tried to reason with her.

"Well… it should be capable of battle in cases of emergency, you never know if your axe would not be around if someone suddenly attacked" she replied back.

Hiccup can only sigh "Why test it against Inferno though?"

She just looked at a different axe while casually saying "Gotta be prepared. I mean like, who else in the entire archipelago has a weapon that can literally set itself on fire, yet leaves the wielder unharmed"

She ended with a sly look towards him, to which he can only reply "Touché"

Seeing that he is quite struggling with keeping up with another axe test, she chuckled and lets him be "Alright… let's keep the testing done for now, you're free from any more testing today"

Right after she finished, he instantly collapsed into a nearby rock and sat himself there as he choked out "Agreed… very much agreed"

Astrid shook her head in amusement and walked towards him.

"You know… for what it's worth. I didn't take you all the way out her just for some axe testing" she said as she sat right next to him.

Hiccup breathed out exasperatedly "I would've had more appreciation for what you're planning to do, had if we got our dragons along with us. Metal leg here" he emphasized by gesturing at his leg.

"I know… I know… but in a few minutes, I think you'll probably appreciate the date a bit more" she replied.

He sighed and laid his head a bit more towards the rock, while shutting his eyes "Well, you tell me when that moment arrives".

They both sat there in comfortable silence. The winds of the cliffs softly caressing their faces as many other noises can be heard in the distance.

Only a few minutes have passed by before Hiccup felt a slight nudge on his shoulder followed by a soft whisper.

"Hiccup"

He hummed in response, with Astrid whispering again.

"Open your eyes"

He opened his eyes, only to be greeted with the view that he had encountered earlier in the day during the dawn times.

The sunset view in the Edge has always been quite a view and a memory that Hiccup is fond of. Especially as it was the view that had accompanied his and Astrid's "Perfect moment".

"The sunset huh? What's the occasion?" he asked inquisitively.

"Nothing much" Astrid began "I just felt like you deserve some relaxation time. You've been through a lot lately and judging by the way you looked this morning, I figured that this is the least that I can do to loosen up your shoulders a bit. Like it?"

He fondly smiles at her "Love it milady. It's perfect. Thank you…" he softly says as he nuzzled his forehead to hers, in which she followed suit.

She then leaned her head to his shoulders which prompts him to drape his arm over his shoulder, and the two just sat there, admiring the sunset whilst being lost in a world of their own as they shared the moment.

Even when loud screams were heard from the direction of the Edge, the two didn't even bother to check on who's voices are shouting out as they can just recognize it from the sound.

"Twins blowing up Snotlout's stuff again?" Astrid just casually asked.

"Most likely" Hiccup replied while stealing a glance towards the Edge.

He'd wondered how he can make it so that things just stayed this smooth.

Sure the twins and Snotlout are causing a racket once again, but that never really was out of the ordinary.

Besides, going off from the explosions. He could see a lot of tranquility around it all. The dragons all sleeping or eating peacefully, or even Fishlegs and Heather just hanging around his garden as he enthusiastically gestured to his plants and rocks, with her listening rather wistfully.

And then there's her.

Well he would love to think that the Valkyries of Valhalla would resemble her.

But with her by his side, he felt as if the days can just fly by.

He glanced towards her to see that she had fallen asleep leaning on his shoulder.

He smiled and draws her closer to him, ensuring a bit more warmth in the enclosing chilly night.

Sure, he might get cold himself, but for him. It's all quite fine.

Because in days like this…

He wished that everything he holds dear to, is for forever.

All the way to the future.

* * *

 _In a galaxy far far away..._

Very far in the distant future. In the wide arrays of space and the universe itself.

A man with a bowtie was reading a book about Viking history. One that was focused on the mythological theory where it was believed that dragons roamed the Earth alongside them. Working together in harmony with the humans before their sudden extinction.

He was accompanied by a young woman who seemed to be just as interested as the man is, before he suddenly pointed out in confusion "Wait did you see that?"

The young woman just asked "See what?"

"The writing… it just… changed…" he pointed out. He then skimmed through various pages, only to discover that more and more content and writing is changing with the passing minutes.

"What?" he asked to no one in particular as he jumps up and went to his console screen to search for numerous anomalies.

"That can't be happening... battles... akumas... WHAT!?"

All his mumbling has led to the woman to being utterly confused "Umm, mind clueing on what's going on"

The man seemed to be jumbling buttons around and also his wording "This is an emergency really. We need to get this fixed as soon as possible"

His sentences made her even more confused, which prompts her to ask in confusion "Doctor! What is happening?"

The man in question twirled around towards her and points at the console

"My dear Clara, we're going back to the Viking age!"

* * *

 **BANG!**

 **THAT IS THE END OF IN DAYS LIKE THIS!**

 **But wait! The Whoniverse AU. Yes I know that it is a crossover, but since this story is just the launch of the AU, I wouldn't put it as a crossover yet due to the fact that Doctor Who is barely even mentioned here.**

 **Now if you noticed, there are MORE universes involved in the AU, but more can be explained if you visit my profile where I have placed an explanation for this AU.**

 **Now on to the next important bits, some of you may have noticed that chapter 3 "Beauty of the Storm" has gotten quite a a bit of flak due to Astrid's OOC moment. To be honest, I didn't think of it much... But now I noticed that there is a better way to write that part a bit better.**

 **So... I'm wondering if any of you are interested in me re-writing that bit to my revised one if any of you want me to! I'll be willing to do that bit once again if you all would PM or let me know through reviews!**

 **That is all for now everybody! Thank you to every each and one of you who have read, followed, favourited, and reviewed! You all are my biggest source of motivation and I'm very happy to have been writing this story for you all!**

 **Thank you once again, and stay awesome peeps!**

 **-Blind Out!**


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